Doctor Who: The Vault of Days
by Hellinbrand
Summary: A Multi-Doctor story. When the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS is stolen, he is forced to call on his two previous regenerations to help him recover it from the besieged world of Castor IV. But is everything what it seems?
1. The Three Doctors

Disclaimer: 'Doctor Who' and all characters etc. related to it belong to the BBC. I am just borrowing them for a while.

* * *

**Doctor Who: The Vault of Days**

_A Multi-Doctor Adventure _

**Chapter 1: The Three Doctors**

The TARDIS was gone. Amy stood and stared, disbelieving, at the space between the trees where it had stood.

"That's… not good, is it?" said Rory softly.

"No. No it is not," said the Doctor. Amy and Rory watched as he paced back and forth on the spot where the TARDIS had disappeared. He made passes at the surroundings with his sonic screwdriver, occasionally pausing to shake it with frustration.

It had all happened in a few seconds. Amy, Rory and the Doctor had been approaching the glade when they heard the unique 'vwoosh vwoosh' of the TARDIS engine. They had begun to run and reached the glade just in time to see the blue box fade away.

Amy took Rory's hand. The surrounding pine trees had seemed magical when she arrived yesterday. Now they seemed wild, even alien; things from a distant past that she did not belong to. She called over to the Doctor:

"So… we're stranded then?"

"Yes," he said, still scanning the trees.

"In the nineteenth century? In Bavaria?"

"Yes."

"So we're reallystranded?"

"Yes, Pond we are!" cried the Doctor, turning to face her at last, "Now be quiet. I'm trying to think…"

"Haven't you got a way to bring it back?" asked Rory, "Like a recall button or something?"

"Yes, but whoever has taken the TARDIS has deactivated it," said the Doctor, dismissing the suggestion with a wave of his hand.

"Someone's _taken _it?" said Amy, "But who…?"

"I don't know!" snapped the Doctor, "Just let me think for a moment!

"Let's see… Eighteen eighty five: no wireless communication, no microchips, no heavier than air flight, no Ginster's pasties, although that's probably a good thing... Never mind! Where was I? Ah yes, eighteen eighty five… It's going to be at least fifty years before UNIT or NASA, and Torchwood won't be any help. No useful allies of any kind, although Jules Verne should still be kicking around Paris. I wonder if…? No, he said he'd never forgive me for that business with the balloon."

Amy and Rory waited with practiced patience for the Doctor's train of thought to reach its conclusion.

"So that leaves us with two options: stay here and ride out history the boring way or…" The Doctor paused to violently tousle his hair, "I swore I'd never use this," he muttered. Reached into his jacket, he drew out a small octagonal box made of a dark green metal. Holding it between his forefinger and thumb he depressed a button hidden on top of the box and threw it straight up into the air. The box reached the top of its arc and vanished in a flash of red light.

"What was that?" asked Amy.

"Temporal distress flare." The Doctor was pacing nervously up and down again. "It beams a call for help to every point in time and space simultaneously. Time Lord technology; used to contact them in emergencies."

"But the Time Lords are gone," said Amy, "That's what you said: the Time Lords were wiped out."

"They were."

"So who do you expect to answer?"

Amy froze. She could hear a familiar sound rising behind her.

Vwoosh vwoosh. Vwoosh vwoosh.

Slowly, Amy and Rory turned. The TARDIS was reappearing on the far side of the glade. Except, Amy realised, it was not the same TARDIS. It still resembled a big blue police box, but there were differences. Subtle differences but they leapt out at Amy, who had lived in the TARDIS for many months. The St. John's Ambulance sticker on the door was missing. The lamp on the roof was a different shape. The windows were white, not grey. This was the TARDIS but it was not herTARDIS.

The familiar noise faded as the new TARDIS settled in time and space. For a moment there was silence in the glade. The door opened. A man wearing a dark leather jacket stepped out. Amy did not recognise him. He looked older than Rory or the Doctor, with a receding hairline and a careworn face dominated by his prominent ears and long nose. He folded his arms and stared hard at the Doctor.

"This better be important," he said, in a strong northern accent.

"Of course it is," said the Doctor irritably, "You don't think I called you up for a social chat, do you?" The man in the leather jacket looked like he was about to reply when a voice behind him said:

"Doctor? What's goin' on?"

A girl stepped cautiously out of the TARDIS. She was young, probably not even twenty one. Her face was pretty, if slightly toothy, framed by straight blonde hair that fell to her shoulders.

"Doctor?" said Amy, "Do you know her?"

The girl frowned, and spoke to the man in the leather jacket. "Doctor? Who are they?"

"Them I don't know," the man in the leather jacket said, indicating Amy and Rory, "But _he,_" he turned to the Doctor, "is the Doctor."

"And so," said the Doctor to Amy and Rory, "is he." He pointed to the man in the leather jacket. There was a long, confused pause.

"Doctor," said Amy slowly, still addressing the young man wearing a bowtie, "What are you talking about?"

"Put it this way," said bowtie, "I am he…"

"As he is me," said leather jacket.

"And we are all together, coo coo cachoo!" said a third voice, gleefully.

Everybody turned. A young man wearing a long brown overcoat was entering the glade from the forest path. He was distinctly handsome, with a strong jaw line, high cheekbones and large, dark eyes. He grinned at the small group gathered before the TARDIS.

"Hello!" he said, "Sorry I'm late. Had to find a parking… Rose?" He was staring intently at the blonde girl. The Doctor in a bowtie stepped between them.

"No," he said firmly, "No, no, no. She's with him," he pointed to the Doctor in the leather jacket, "She doesn't know you. She's never _met _you. Just leave it, okay?" For a moment anger shone in the newcomer's eyes, a look as dangerous as it was fleeting, but he nodded stiffly and said nothing.

"Let me guess," said Amy, addressing the newcomer, "you'rethe Doctor too?"

"One of me," said bowtie, "My predecessor, if you like."

"But you're… you're all…" Rory murmured, turning between the three Doctors with a look of total bemusement.

"It's like this," said leather jacket, "I am a Time Lord. I don't die. I… change. It's called regeneration. I get a new face; new voice; new quirks. Same me inside just… different bodywork."

"So," said Rose, "they're like you…but new you, from the future?"

"Can you do that?" said Rory, "Meet yourself, I mean?"

"We're doing it, aren't we?" said leather jacket with a shrug.

"But it takes a lot of power," said the Doctor in the brown overcoat, "We're standing in the middle of a spaghetti junction of timey-wimey… stuff. The only thing keeping the universe from imploding is the Paradox Circuit in the TARDIS. Or TARDISes."

"So we don't want to waste any time," said leather jacket brusquely, "Why'd you call us?" he asked bowtie.

"Wait a second," said Amy, holding up her hands, "If you're going to stick around we need to decide what to call you. We can't keep saying 'Doctor' and have the three of you say, 'Yes?' You," she pointed to leather jacket, "You're the first, right?"

"Ninth, technically" he replied.

"Okay then, you can be Nine. You," she pointed to brown overcoat, "are Ten. And that makes you," she pointed to bowtie, "Eleven. Clear?"

"Why does it have to be numbers?" said Eleven, "It's so… impersonal_._"

"This from a man who introduces himself as 'The Doctor'," said Rory.

"What about Charles?" suggested Ten, "I could be a Charles. Charlie! Charlie the Doctor…"

"I've always liked the name Bill. Or Billy? What do you think of Billy?" Nine asked the blonde girl. He smiled impishly; his expression suddenly full of warmth and good-natured mischief.

"Oh for goodness _sake,_" said Amy, loudly, "You're having numbers, okay? It's simple. You," she turned to Eleven, "tell them what happened."

"Yes, well," he said, scowling at her, "I was taking the Ponds here to visit Ludwig II…" Nine interrupted him:

"Ludwig of Bavaria? Ludwig the Mad?"

"Yeah, old Ludwig!" Ten cut in, "Great bloke. You're going to love him. Trust me."

"We spent the night in his new castle," Eleven continued, "Reminiscing about our travels, toasting marshmallows; that sort of thing. We were on our way back to the TARDIS when we saw it take off."

"Homing beacon?" said Ten. Eleven shook his head.

"I can still track it," he replied, "but whoever's taken it deactivated the recall function."

The three Doctors fell to discussing who might have taken the TARDIS, where they might have gone and the best way to retrieve it. Their companions, forgotten in the excitement, drifted together at the edge of the glade and introduced themselves.

"Rose Tyler."

"Amy and Rory Pond."

"You're married?" Rose beamed at them, "Were you married before you met him or…?"

"Long story," said Amy, "Have you got someone waiting for you?" Rose gave her an awkward look.

"Sort'a… It's a long story."

"Sounds familiar," Rory muttered, with only a hint of bitterness. Amy pretended not to hear him.

"So, you're two Doctors ahead o' me," said Rose, "Does he… has he ever said anythin' about me?"

"No, not really. But don't take it personally," Amy added quickly, "Ours doesn't talk about his past much."

"Yeah, mine too," said Rose. She smiled as she said it but she sounded worried.

The three companions turned to watch the Doctors, who were now arguing loudly.

"We should take mine," said Nine vehemently, "It's got the lowest mileage."

"Okay," said Eleven, "but I'm the pilot."

"Not a chance," said Nine.

"I'm the most experienced…"

"It's my TARDIS!"

"Okay, okay!" Eleven threw up his hands, "As long as it's not him." He looked pointedly at Ten.

"What?" said Ten.

"I remember your flying. You crashed into the _Titanic_!"

"Honestly," said Ten, rolling his eyes, "you hit one space liner…"

The Doctors headed towards Nine's TARDIS, arguing as they went.

"Keep up Ponds," Eleven called over his shoulder as he disappeared inside.

"He doesn't change that much, does he?" said Rose dryly as the companions followed the Doctors.

Unlike the exterior, the interior of this TARDIS was remarkably different to the one Amy knew. Everything was soft brown or green. The sloping walls made her feel like she was inside a giant plant or shell, as did the curving, arboreal pillars that supported the roof and central platform. Nine was already busy at the console, pulling levers and pushing numerous buttons.

"Screwdriver," he said. Eleven reluctantly handed his over sonic screwdriver. Nine inserted it into a socket on the console.

"Is that what I'm wearing now?" he asked.

"Bowties are cool," said Eleven defensively, "I mean, if you want to look like everyone else..." He looked over at Ten "Really though? Converse?"

"What's wrong with them?" demanded Ten.

"One word: boring!" Eleven swept over to the far side of the console, away from the other Doctors. Amy followed him.

"What's up with you, grumpy face?"

"Them," said Eleven, not looking at her.

"What's wrong with 'them'? They seem alright to me." More than alright, Amy added silently. Ten had discarded his overcoat to reveal his blue pinstripe suit and, she noticed, rather splendid bottom.

"We don't work well together," Eleven explained, "We're Time Lords, not a Time Committee. _Lords_, Pond. We're not used to co-operating."

"Ah!"

"Ah?"

"Just… ah."

"Ah what?"

"Ah as in, 'ah, I understand'" said Amy, with a mischievous smile, "You like to be the cleverest one in the room; the one with the plan; the one with all the answers. Now you've got to work with someone who is just as good as you; just as brave; just as brilliant. And you can't stand it."

"Nonsense," said Eleven, avoiding her eyes.

"Just try to play nice with the other Doctors, eh? There's a good boy," said Amy, patting him on the head. Eleven scowled and turned away.

"Hold on!" cried Nine as the column above the console began to pulsate with a blue light, "We're off!"

The TARDIS gave a sudden lurch, sending Amy stumbling across the platform. Ten darted forward and caught her arm, steadying her.

"Thanks," she said, blushing. He was even better looking close up.

"Don't mention it." They staggered over to the handrail and held on tight as the floor shuddered and jolted beneath them.

"So…" said Amy, "are you travelling with somebody?"

Ten stared blankly into the distance. "No," he said softly. Then he focused on Amy and said in a stronger voice: "No. I don't. Did, but don't. Not anymore."

"So you did have someone"?

"Yes."

"Recently?"

"Yes."

Amy wanted to ask what had happened to Ten's companion but it was clearly a painful subject: his expression spoke of loss, recent and painful. She fell silent.

Ten recovered himself and grinned at Amy.

"Sorry. It's Amy, isn't it? Amy Pond? Great name! And you're ginger! I always wanted…"

The TARDIS gave another tremendous lurch, throwing them against the rail. Ten said something but his voice was drowned out by a chorus of screeching, electronic voices:

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! _EXTERMINATE!_"

* * *

_Author's note: In case you are wondering, this is where the three Doctors and their companions are in their respective timelines during this story – _

_- Nine and Rose are between 'Father's Day' and 'The Empty Child'_

_- Ten is between 'Journey's End' and 'The Next Doctor' _

_- Eleven, Amy and Rory are between 'A Christmas Carol' and 'The Impossible Astronaut' _


	2. The Siege of Castor IV

**Chapter 2: Siege of Castor IV**

Nine thumped a button on the console. The shrieking voices were cut off.

"What?" said Ten, leaping across to the console and tapping out a series of commands, "What? _What?_"

"Doctor?" said Rose, her voice rising as she spoke, "Doctor, what was that?"

"Impossible," said Nine, ignoring her, "Just… impossible."

A large, octagonal video screen rose up from a hidden compartment in the console. It flickered with static and then cleared to reveal a large planet circled by two small moons. Its surface was pale purple, shot through with streaks of grey cloud. Between the screen and the planet was a swarm of dark blots, mixed with smaller grey spots.

Ten reached up and turned a crank on the side of the screen. The picture zoomed in. The dark blots were revealed to be vast tubular spaceships, every one a burnt-out hulk or piece of wreckage. The grey spots were a long crescent formation of flying saucers, sparkling with red and green lights. There were three large saucers at the centre, with the two arms of the crescent made up of hundreds of smaller ships.

"That's a Dalek battle fleet," said Ten.

"Impossible," said Nine. They both spoke very softly, staring incredulously at the screen.

"But I destroyed them," said Nine.

"So did I," said Ten, "Well, not me exactly; a clone of me. Long story, very confusing, didn't end well. It doesn't explain _this _though."

They both turned to look at Eleven, who squirmed.

"Ah, well, the thing is," he said, "I sort of… well, accidentally... resurrected them.

"Oh don't look at me like that!" he snapped, "Destroying the Daleks! It was never going to stick, was it?"

"So that was them we heard? The Daleks?" said Rory, who had never met a fully powered Dalek before.

"Psychological warfare," explained Nine grimly, "Standard Dalek tactic. Before they attack they spam the airwaves, every form of communication they can hack, and just play the same word, 'exterminate', over and over."

"So who are they attacking?" asked Rose.

Ten turned the crank again and the picture jumped to focus on the three largest Dalek saucers. Close up, Amy saw that what she had taken for lights were actually blasts from energy weapons. The Daleks were firing green beams at the planet, which was responding with red beams. There were far more green than red.

"Castor IV," said Eleven, "Home to one the greatest shipyards in the universe. At least it will be, in about fifty years."

"What do you mean?" asked Amy.

"It's what the Daleks do," said Nine. His voice was level but there was a terrible intensity in his expression; a fierce, barely controlled hatred that Amy had never seen in her Doctor, "A temporal blitzkrieg. They travel back to a point just before a civilisation makes its great advance, wipe them out and take whatever they need for themselves."

"But these guys have spaceships and lasers," said Amy, "Why didn't they go back to, say, the Stone Age? Take over while everyone's still living in caves?"

Nine shook his head. "Too much work. This way the planet's natural resources have already been tapped. Most of the infrastructure is in place too. All the Daleks have to do is replace the people. Otherwise, they'd have to do all the mining and building themselves. Why do you think they keep attacking Earth in the 20th century?"

The three humans stared at the screen. It was all too easy to imagine those ships hovering above Earth, bombarding human cities.

Rory broke the silence by asking the question that everyone was thinking:

"So… do the Daleks have the TARDIS?"

Ten moved round the console to look at a smaller monitor mounted on a flexible arm. "No," he said, "It's down on the planet."

"But we don't have long," said Eleven, "They'll be landing their armies soon."

"That's long enough," said Nine, "The Castorians have some fight left in them." He was already dashing around the console, throwing switches and pounding buttons. The TARDIS shuddered and jerked, then was still again.

Eleven was the first one at the door. Amy followed him cautiously: she did not want walk out into the path of a Dalek laser beam. To her surprise, the world outside the TARDIS was quiet. No energy beams fell from the pale pink sky. No Dalek voices screeched at her.

They had landed on a street of low, domed buildings, all made of a slate-coloured stone. Many were heavily damaged. Amy thought that they looked like grey eggshells discarded by some giant cook. The street was littered with shards of stone.

Eleven moved away from the TARDIS, sonic screwdriver held out like a divining rod. When he came to the corner of the street he paused and waved to Amy and the others.

Amy crossed over and saw that they were on the top of a steep hill. Here the street ran down towards a flat country of purple grass, dotted with clusters of the grey eggshell buildings. In the distance, stretching across the horizon, was a great dust cloud in which many lights flickered.

"They've landed," said Eleven grimly. He turned on Nine, "You jumped us in time _and _space!"

"And I suppose you could have done better?" said Nine

"I doubt it," Amy muttered.

"Stay out of this, Pond," snapped Eleven.

"Does this sound familiar?" said Amy sarcastically, "'Wait here, I'll be right back'. _Fourteen _years later…!"

"Will you ever let that go?"

"_Where _is the TARDIS?" said Rory loudly, cutting them off before they could build up to a full-scale argument.

"There," said Ten. He pointed west, along the line of hills, to a distant cluster of green spires, "The Emerald Monastery of Castor IV. Shouldn't take more than an hour or two on foot."

"It's a long way," said Rose doubtfully.

"But it's safer to walk," said Eleven, with a pointed look at Nine, "There's less chance of overshooting."

"You can walk," said Nine, "Someone needs to take care of that Dalek fleet." He turned away and began to walk back towards his TARDIS.

"Doctor…?" said Rose. She started to follow him. Nine turned back.

"No, Rose. You stay with them."

"No," said Eleven quickly, "Rose, go with him."

Nine's hands, hanging loose at his sides, curled into fists.

"It's not safe" he said, glaring at Eleven.

"Safer than walking into a warzone," said Eleven, meeting Nine's gaze coolly.

"You'd rather fly her into the middle of a Dalek fleet?"

"I agree," said Ten, "Rose should stay."

"Hey! Don't I get a say in this?" demanded Rose.

"Stay out of this!" said all three Doctors.

"It's safer," Eleven said slowly, giving Ten a meaningful look, "for her to go with him."

Ten frowned but nodded.

For a second Amy genuinely thought that Nine would try to hit Eleven but the moment passed. Nine turned and strode back to the TARDIS, leaving Rose standing between the two groups, looking both confused and hurt.

"Go on," said Amy, smiling, "He's your Doctor. Someone's got to look after him."

Rose returned the smile and ran after Nine. They both disappeared into the TARDIS. A few seconds later, it was gone. Ten instantly rounded on Eleven:

"I'm sorry, but what the _hell _do you -?"

"I just saved your life!" said Eleven.

"What?"

"You remember what he's like," Eleven pointed to the spot where Nine's TARDIS had been, "He doesn't care anymore! He'd happily sacrifice himself if it meant destroying a Dalek fleet. And then what would happen to you and me, hmm? But if Rose is with him… He always makes sure that Rose is safe. He always brings Rose back."

Ten considered Eleven thoughtfully.

"You're either very clever, or very cold."

"You would know. _Doctor._"

They heard something being dislodged in the ruins. The Doctors froze. Footsteps were approaching on the far side of the street.

"Inside, now," said Eleven, gesturing Amy and Rory towards the building behind them.

"Stay where you are!" called a distinctly non-Dalek voice.

"Put your hands up. Slowly," ordered the voice. It had a strong but melodious accent. Amy, Rory and the Doctors raised their hands.

Two creatures emerged from the building across the street. They looked something like great spiders or lobsters, covered with a greyish purple carapace. They had six thin, segmented limbs. Four were for walking, while two functioned like arms. These two ended in a mass of grey fleshy feelers. Their heads, which grew straight out of their thorax with no discernable neck between them, were dominated by two huge glossy black eyes. Both creatures carried long rifles.

"Check them," one of the creatures said to its companion. Amy wondered how it could speak; it did not appear to have any lips. It had an opening in the bottom half of its head covered by two plates of carapace, which she assumed was its mouth, but all it seemed to do was vibrate them and occasionally taste the air with its long grey tongue.

The creature scuttled forward and quickly frisked the four humanoids. Amy, who had hated insects since she was a child, had to bite down hard on her lip to stop herself screaming as the creature ran its smooth, sinuous feelers over her.

"No weapons," the creature reported to what was clearly its chief or officer, "Just these." It held up the Doctors' sonic screwdrivers.

"Who are you?" the officer demanded, "You're not Daleks."

"I'm—" Eleven began but Ten interrupted him:

"I'm John Smith. This is Amy, Rory and Theta Sigma," he nodded at Eleven, "Take us to your leader. I love saying that," he said, turning to grin at Amy. Despite her fears, Amy found herself smiling back.

"We have information about the Daleks," Ten continued, "You need our help. Trust me."

Amy tried to read the officer's expression but this proved very difficult on a creature without human features.

"Very well," it said, "ZacTun, give them their items back. You take point. I'll cover the rear."

The creature known as ZacTun set off, picking its way cautiously back through the ruined building it had emerged from. Amy, Rory and the Doctors followed, with the officer at the rear. The two creatures were alert, their great black eyes constantly sweeping the surrounding ruins.

Amy jogged forward until she was walking beside Eleven.

"What are they?" she whispered.

"Castorians," he replied, his voice little more than a murmur, "Greatest shipbuilders of their age."

"But they're bugs," Amy hissed.

"So? There are billions of worlds out there in the great big universe. Whoever said that apes had to come out on top on every one of them?"

"It's just… I don't like bugs."

"Well think of it this way: they might have a phobia of pink, hairless apes."

"Wow, thanks," said Amy, sarcastically.

"You're welcome," said Eleven, oblivious.

They travelled on in tense silence. They met no one, but the Castorians did not relax their guard for a moment. They headed north, away from the battle on the plains, and deeper into the city. The domed buildings grew wider and more colourful but Amy saw few that were taller than two stories; no skyscrapers, no minarets or church steeples.

"Halt!" called a voice. The small group stopped. More Castorians emerged from the buildings. These were larger than ZacTun and his officer, and their carapace was darker and heavier. They also carried bigger weapons.

"Prisoners?" asked a particularly tall Castorian with a prominent bony crest on its forehead. It spoke with the same strong, pleasantly musical accent as the other Castorians.

"Found them on then southern perimeter, captain," the officer explained, "They say they have important information about the Daleks."

"I'll call headquarters," said the captain. It disappeared inside a building.

"Doctor?" Amy whispered to Eleven, "How can I understand what they're saying? I mean, they can't be speaking like us; they don't even have proper mouths!"

"Doesn't matter," said Eleven softly, "You've travelled in the TARDIS. Your brain has absorbed the translation circuit. It's converting how the Castorians communicate for you."

"Okay, I get that," said Amy, "but how do you explain the Irish accents?"

Eleven considered this.

"I'll explain later," he said.

The captain returned. "I'll take them from here, lieutenant," it said. The lieutenant made a gesture with its forelegs that might have been a salute and turned back the way it had come. ZacTun followed.

"Follow me," the big captain ordered. Two soldiers fell in behind the small group as they moved along the street. Ahead, a wide ramp had been cut deep into the ground. It was flanked by two domed pillboxes. Two large guns protruded from the mouth of each pillbox like dark, stubby fangs.

The large captain led them down the ramp and along a very long, winding tunnel. The walls were pitted with dozens of firing slits. Every few hundred metres there was an energy shield that deactivated to allow them past and then reactivated behind them.

Finally, after passing through an octagonal chamber covered by no less than six different firing positions, they reached a series of smaller corridors. These were full of Castorians, some large and heavily armed, others smaller with much lighter and paler carapace.

At the end of the corridors they at least reached their destination: a huge spherical cavern filled with strange computers. Parts of them looked like bone while other parts pulsated softly, almost as if they were breathing. Others bits glowed with subdued orange light. These were manned by the smallest and palest Castorians that Amy had yet seen, all with extremely long and flexible feelers. The big captain approached a dais in the centre of the cavern where a Castorian the size of a small elephant sat on a huge chair, albeit one designed for a creature with four legs.

"Captain ZacFan, general," the captain said, gesturing with its forelegs, "Reporting with the prisoners, as ordered."

"Let me handle this," Ten whispered to Eleven.

The Castorian general looked down at the humanoids. Its carapace was dark purple, with two huge fin-like growths on its shoulders that swept out and back, making it seem even bigger than it already was.

"Who are you?" it rumbled, "All offworlders were ordered to take shelter in the haven pits with the civilians."

"John Smith, Galactic Insurance," said Ten cheerily. He stepped forward, past ZacFan and held out his psychic paper for the general to read.

"In light of recent events, have you considered changing your policy?" Ten asked, pocketing the paper and darting over to a nearby computer console.

"Insurance?" said the bewildered general.

"Yeah, Dalek invasion; perfect time," said Ten, putting on a pair of thick rimmed glasses and examining the computer screen, "I'd act fast though, if I were you. Having your planet wiped out by a fleet of xenophobic cyborgs can push premiums through the roof."

He skipped over to another computer.

"Luckily for you we're offering a very reasonable package of home contents insurance, with property and life insurance at reduced rates. And only this week, insurance against being disintegrated is half price.

"Ooh!" he said, pausing by a computer and examining it closely, "I've heard about these! Fully integrated bio-technology: living computers, made of flesh and bone and nerves and everything. Tell me, are they more like pets or machines to you?"

"Guards!" cried the general. Ten spun round as three Castorians levelled their rifles at him.

"Whoa!" he cried, holding up his hands, "Sorry! But really, what is it with soldiers and guns? It's all 'bang bang bang' with you guys, isn't it?"

"What," said the general, slowly, "do you want?"

"To warn you," said Ten, suddenly serious, "There's a… weapon. It crashed into the Emerald Monastery. You can't let the Daleks find it."

"A weapon? What has this got to do with insurance?"

"Well it'll raise your premiums for a start," said Ten, winking at Amy.

"Sir," said one of the pale Castorians operating the computers, "Sensors _did _detect some strange readings coming from the Monastery. We thought it was just fallout from the bombardment. It could be the weapon that this offworlder is referring to."

"If you could just give me an escort…" said Ten but the general interrupted him:

"Impossible. The Monastery is too exposed. In a few hours it will be swarming with Daleks. We have already drawn up our battle plans. We will hold them here, in the city streets."

"I'm sorry," said Ten, "but if the Daleks find that weapon before we do, none of that will matter. The Daleks will sweep you aside. And not just you. Every planet in the sky, every system, everything in the universe that is not Dalek: gone, if you don't help us."

The general twined its grey feelers around each other. If it had been human, Amy was sure it would have steepled its fingers.

"Captain ZacFan," it said, "Organise a detachment from the guard. Go with this… John Smith. Retrieve the weapon, if you can. If you cannot, place it beyond the reach of the Daleks for good."

* * *

"So… what's it like meeting yourself?" Rose asked.

Nine was kneeling on the floor, sifting through what looked like the contents of a junk shop that he had produced from some backroom of the TARDIS. Neither of them had spoken since leaving Castor IV.

"It's weird," said Nine, examining an old Gameboy and then tossing it over his shoulder.

"Weird?"

"Yeah, like going back to the house you grew up in. Only someone else has moved in and put up new wallpaper and a load of Swedish furniture."

He drew his sonic screwdriver and set about joining a tangle of electronic wire to something resembling a road drill.

"Can they remember being you?" Rose asked, leaning against the console. She knew better than to try and help when Nine was working on something.

"I remember everybody I've ever been."

"So do they know what's going to happen, with the Daleks and the TARDIS and everything? 'Cause they've already done it, when they were you, right?"

"It's not that simple," Nine put aside the handle and began rummaging through the pile of spares again, "We've moved outside of our proper timeline. The other two will only remember stuff as it happens to me; they can't see any further into my future than I can."

This was getting too complicated for Rose. She had just got used to going backwards and forwards in time. Now it was as if she had found the corner pieces to a particularly complicated jigsaw puzzle, only for somebody to take away the box and turn the lights out.

"The good looking one," she said slowly, "Ten. He recognised me, didn't he?"

"Maybe," said Nine, not looking up from his pile of bits.

"But if he recognised me… that means I'm going meet him, in the future. _My _future, I mean. It's his past now. He knows what's going to happen to me!"

"Rose, no," Nine said sharply, looking up at her.

"But I wasn't with him," Rose continued, not listening to Nine, "Where was I? What happens to me? The other one, Eleven, he's got Amy and Rory now. Why aren't I with him? Where am I? Am I…?"

Nine sprang to his feet. He took Rose's hands and looked straight into her eyes. "Rose, you can't ask those sorts of questions. That's the future; _our _future. We can't ask the others what happens to us. There are some things even a Time Lord isn't meant to know."

"But what if I'm dead?" said Rose, "Doctor, if I can stop it…"

"You can't," said Nine sternly, "And the alternative's worse. Have you forgotten the Reapers?"

"No," Rose said softly, shaking her head, "No… I understand. But… but don't _you_ want to know? That's the next you down on the planet. Don't you want to know how you die?"

Sadness crossed Nine's face like a cold wind.

"Everybody dies, Rose. Even me."

Then he grinned and the warmth of his smile drove away the sadness.

"Come on. We've got monsters to fight!"

Rose giggled. It was impossible to feel gloomy when faced with a smile like that.

"So what's the plan?"

"Oh it's a good 'un," said Nine, burying his arms in the scrap pile again and producing something like a tiny jet engine, "In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that it is fan-_tas-_tic."

He attached the jumble of wires to the little engine and then attached the entire construction to a socket on the TARDIS console.

"I should have replaced this ages ago," he said, sealing the join with his screwdriver.

"What happened to the old one?"

"Ripped off by a sasquatch."

"No! _Seriously_?"

"Yeah. He really didn't like sugar in his tea…"

Nine stood back and rubbed his hands.

"Off we go," he said, throwing a couple of switches on the console. The TARDIS rattled and jerked, although less violently now that the other Doctors and their companions were no longer aboard. It materialised in space above Castor IV. The Dalek fleet was closer now, still bombarding the planet from the upper atmosphere. The Castorians were no longer returning fire.

Inside the TARDIS, Nine turned the console's small screen so that he could both see it and operate his makeshift device at the same time.

"Why aren't they shooting at us?" Rose asked,

"The perception filter makes us appear as background noise on their scanners," explained Nine, "But more importantly, they're not looking for us. They think they've dealt with the enemy fleet. Look."

The picture on the screen zoomed out. Rose saw that the TARDIS was floating in the middle of a great cloud of wreckage. She could see where the Dalek weapons had sliced the Castorian ships into neat cross sections or burned holes through them like railway tunnels. Blackened fragments of metal span slowly through the void. There were also many bodies; mere specks of dirt on the spaceships' massive flanks. Rose was very glad she could not see them clearly.

"That looks like a good one," said Nine.

"What?"

"That cruiser. It's pretty sturdy, and the main reactor is still live." Nine pointed to a long, narrow ship shaped like a fat pencil. Its hull was riddled with dozens of holes but it was still in one piece.

Nine tapped out a sequence of commands on the console, and then picked up the drill-like device with both hands. A crude crosshair appeared on the screen. It reminded Rose of the old videogames the boys on her estate used to play in the arcades, back before people had home consoles. She had never played much herself; she and her girlfriends were there for the boys.

Very carefully, Nine began to twist the device in his hands. As he did so, the crosshair on the screen moved. Slowly, and with much grunting and muttered cursing, he brought the crosshair to centre on the wrecked space cruiser.

"Got it!" he shouted, flicking a switch on the side of the controller. A beam of blue light sprang from the TARDIS, connecting it to the cruiser. The light spread over the ship, surrounding it like a halo.

"Great," said Nine, "Now all it needs is a little push. Rose, you see that dial?" He nodded at the console, not lowering the controller, "Turn it to seven, one, seven. Now, do you see the orange button above it? Push it."

As Rose followed the Doctor's instructions, the light-shrouded space cruiser began to turn. It was a slow, graceful movement, like some great whale in the ocean depths. When Rose pushed the orange button, it began to move forward, away from the other hulks. Nine flicked the switch on the controller again and the halo of blue light disappeared.

"Is that it?" said Rose.

"That's all it needs," said Nine, resting the controller on the console, "Its own momentum will do the rest."

He piloted the TARDIS round and followed the cruiser. He kept to the spaceward side of the wreck, so that it was between the TARDIS and the Dalek fleet.

"That's odd," said Nine, moving round the console to study some of the other instruments.

"What's odd?"

"Nothing… I'll explain later."

The space cruiser was clear of the other hulks now, gliding steadily through the void. Looking at the screen, Rose saw that they were heading away from the planet and the Dalek fleet.

"Doctor? Where are we taking this ship?"

Nine turned the crank on the side of the screen. The picture spun round. Directly ahead of them lay one of the two moons of Castor IV. Its brown pockmarked surface put Rose in mind of a giant potato. The derelict space cruiser was flying straight towards it, like a dart heading for the bull's-eye.

"You're going to-?"

"Crash a spaceship into the moon? Oh yes!" Nine said, grinning.


	3. The Emerald Monastery

**Chapter 3: The Emerald Monastery **

The party dispatched to recover Eleven's TARDIS approached the Emerald Monastery on foot. Ten had suggested taking a vehicle but the Castorians thought it would be too conspicuous.

"Better to go on foot," said Captain ZacFan, who commanded their escort, "Less chance of being spotted that way."

So they walked. Amy, Rory and the Doctors were at the centre of the party, with the platoon of Castorian soldiers surrounding them in a loose box formation. Although he had assured the time travellers that the Dalek army was still some distance from the city, ZacFan took every precaution on the march. Soldiers were dispatched to scout well ahead of the main party, and detachments were regularly sent out onto the flanks to search the nearby buildings. ZacFan stayed at the centre with a group of the largest and most heavily armed Castorians.

"Where is everybody?" Amy asked Ten as they crossed yet another deserted street of grey domed buildings.

"Sent away," ZacFan answered. Amy flinched as he spoke and immediately felt guilty. It was not the Castorians' fault that insects made her skin crawl.

"Where have they gone?" she said.

"To the haven pits; the last refuge of our people. They lie deep underground, beyond the reach of the fleet above. Should our forces on the surface be defeated, we will retreat to the pits and fight beneath the earth. We can hold out there for many years, if we have to."

"And are your family there?"

"Family?" ZacFan sounded puzzled, "Ah! Yes, I understand now. It is an offworld concept that does not translate easily to my people. We do not have families as some species understand them. We are born into a clan. Each clan fulfils a role in our society. I am of the Zac clan. We are soldiers."

"So there are others? Like builder clans and farmer clans?"

"Exactly. These, my fellow soldiers, are what you would call my family. We were spawned together, raised together, and now we fight together. We do not breed or spawn any children of our own; that is not our function in the clan."

Amy nodded. It did not sound much fun to her, having your entire life defined by which family you happened to be born into, not to mention being unable to 'breed', but then who was she to judge? When ZacFan spoke it was with pride and affection for his 'family' of soldiers. Life as a human would be just as alien to him as life as a Castorian would be to her.

A soldier scuttled across their path. It exchanged hushed words with ZacFan.

"Come," he said, "You should see this." The party changed course to follow the scout.

The Emerald Monastery stood on the highest peak of a range of hills on the south-western edge of the city. To approach it the party had been following the streets on the northern face of the hills. Now they turned south and climbed upwards. From here, through a gap between two particular wide dome buildings, Amy could see down onto the flatlands below the city.

The fighting was much closer now. What had appeared as a twinkling dust cloud a few hours ago was now clearly visible. The Castorian soldiers were hard to spot, shifting blurs against the purple grass, but it was impossible to miss the Daleks. Their army extended from east to west, each battalion of drones moving in a wedge formation: vivid crimson against pale purple. The frontline between the two forces was a shifting, chaotic mess shrouded in grey dust, shot through with energy beams and the vicious red of the Daleks' armour.

"Why did they paint them such bright colours?" asked Rory, "Wouldn't some camouflage have been useful?"

"Only if you want to hide from your enemy," said Eleven, grim-faced, "The Daleks don't want to hide. They _want _you to know that they're there; that they're coming for you. You were a Roman centurion once. Different technology, same psychology."

"They are advancing faster that predicted," said ZacFan, "We must be quick."

They resumed the march, the humanoids jogging to keep up with the Castorians' longer gait. There was no conversation now. Every ear was straining to hear the sounds of the oncoming battle, little more than a muted commotion but growing imperceptibly louder all the time.

The party crossed a steep depression between two hills, the bottom of which had been landscaped into a park full of beautiful pink and purple trees. It was as they reached the far side of this park that Amy got her first real look at the Emerald Monastery. It resembled a giant crown of leaf-green crystal. There were eight tall spikes or towers, with three smaller towers between each of these, all evenly spaced around a central dome large enough to cover a football stadium.

"We'll be there in half an hour, if we keep this pace up," said ZacFan, "I just hope this weapon of yours is easy to find."

"How hard can it be to hide a big blue box?" said Rory.

"A blue –?" but ZacFan was interrupted by the sound of weapons fire in the street ahead. Two of the soldiers sent forward as scouts appeared, moving backwards and firing their rifles. A beam of white energy sliced through the air and struck one of the Castorians. There was bright flash of light and the Castorian fell dead.

"Platoon, form on me!" cried ZacFan. Three red Dalek drones glided into view at the far end of the street, screeching:

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

"Run!" shouted Ten and Eleven simultaneously. They rushed towards the nearest building, Amy and Rory close behind, even as the Castorians opened fire. Blasts of energy pounded the Daleks' shells but the soldiers might have been shining torches at them for all the effect it had. Three beams shot from the Daleks' guns and three Castorians dropped.

"Inside, quick!" said Ten, gesturing Amy and Rory towards the open door. A heartbeat later, the wall of the building exploded outwards with a burst of white laser energy. Two more Dalek drones emerged from the dust cloud, firing as they advanced.

"EXTERMINATE! _EXTERMINATE_!"

"Sorry! Never mind!" said Ten, spinning on his heel and heading for a building across the road. The other time travellers were right behind him. Amy, hand in hand with Rory, ran bent almost double as the energy beams hummed over her head.

"Fall back! Get into cover!" ordered ZacFan as more Castorians fell to the merciless barrage. With perfect discipline the platoon moved across the street, away from the two groups of Daleks and into the buildings on the north side of the street.

The time travellers reached them first. Amy sprinted through the open door and, had Rory not held on to her, would have tumbled headfirst into a deep pit. She saw in an instant why the Castorian buildings looked so low from the outside: they were not building at all but roofs. Beneath the dome was a round pit, furnished with strangely shaped furniture suitable only for Castorians. Smaller tunnels branched off from this pit, presumably to other 'rooms' of the house.

"Out the backdoor," said Eleven, pointing to an opening on the far side of the pit.

"Go! Get what we came for!" shouted ZacFan, taking cover behind the doorpost while his soldiers blazed out through the glassless windows.

Amy dodged past the furniture and fittings, fighting the urge to look back as she heard the Castorians behind her scream. Eleven reached the backdoor first.

"All clear!" he said, bounding through the opening and turning left, towards the Emerald Monastery.

The time travellers ran parallel to the main street for a few seconds, then turned right, cut through another building and went downhill, heading west along the next street over. Behind them they could still hear the sound of gunfire and the occasional cry of pain.

Eleven skidded to a halt. He gestured silently to a doorway. The time travellers moved inside. Seconds later, two Daleks rounded the corner ahead of them.

"SCANNERS HAVE DETECTED THE PRESENCE OF TIME LORDS."

"IT IS AN ERROR. THE TIME LORDS ARE EXTINCT. ONLY THE DOCTOR SURVIVED."

"NEGATIVE! SCANNERS CONFIRM MULTIPLE TIME LORDS IN THE VICINITY."

"IRRELEVANT. THE TIME LORDS ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE DALEKS. THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"EXTERMINATE THE TIME LORDS!"

"Honestly," Eleven muttered, "how did a species this dull become a galactic power? A race they thought was wiped from the face of Creation reappears and all they want to do is kill it!"

"Then hadn't we better _move _before they try it again?" hissed Amy.

"Allow me," said Ten. He scooped up a bronze urn from a nearby table and, with perfect accuracy, bowled it over arm through a window on the far side of the building.

"MOVEMENT DETECTED!" shrieked one of the Daleks.

"ADVANCE AND DESTROY!" cried the other. The two Daleks moved off, away from the time travellers.

"Go!" whispered Ten, urging the others towards the front door.

They emerged into the street, turned west and then south, heading along an alley and back to the main street, only to walk straight into the path of a lone Dalek drone. There was no time to turn, no open door to shelter them. To Amy's amazement, the Dalek did not fire.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" it said, "I AM DETECTING _TWO_ DOCTORS. THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Run, before it remembers it's supposed to kill us," said Ten, pushing Amy and Rory back the way they had come.

There was a long, warbling cry and a huge form sailed over the roof of the building to Amy's left. It was Captain ZacFan, jumping further and higher than any human had ever dreamed of jumping. He landed almost directly on top of the Dalek, bringing the butt of his rifle down on the base of its eyestalk. The eyestalk snapped off.

"MY SENSOR HAS BEEN DAMAGED!" it cried, "TRAVEL UNIT IS COMPROMISED. EXTERMINATE! _EXTERMINATE!_"

Its mid-section began to twist round randomly, firing energy beams in every direction.

"Captain, run!" Ten shouted to ZacFan as Eleven, Rory and Amy sprinted back up the alley. ZacFan followed. A stray energy beam struck the ground between Ten and ZacFan with a blast like a grenade. The Time Lord and the Castorian were thrown backwards through the wall of a nearby building.

* * *

Rose knew that the images on the TARDIS screen were far bigger than they seemed – that the spaceship was several miles long, travelling hundreds of metres every second – but, to her, it all seemed to happen in slow motion.

The spaceship drifted sedately into the gnarled surface of the moon. The prow crumpled instantly but the main hull ploughed onwards, boring its way into the rock. It was only when the mid-section of the ship collapsed that the fireworks started: a blossoming rose of yellow flame, dozens of miles high. More explosions burst along the length of the spaceship, silent in the void. Huge clouds of dust billowed across the moon. Chunks of rock, each a mile long, were hurled out into space. The blast reached the stern of the spaceship and another, even larger explosion filled the video screen. As the flames cleared, it appeared as if a giant hand had descended and scooped out half of the moon. The debris formed a huge cloud of rocks, each one larger than a double decker bus.

"Fantastic!" cried Nine, his hands a blur as they moved across the TARDIS console, "No need for precision now! We'll just grab 'em all."

A blue energy field expanded from the TARDIS to cover the cloud of debris. The cloud settled, contained within the field.

"And now," said Nine, pushing two levers at the same time, "We throw them!"

* * *

On the bridge of Battleship Gamma-Nine, the Supreme Dalek of the Fifth Imperial Fleet turned to consult with its team of Strategist Daleks.

"UPDATE!" said the white-armoured Supreme.

"ALL FORCES ARE ADVANCING!" replied one of the blue Strategists from its position at the main tactical interface, "THE NATIVE ARMIES ARE IN RETREAT. ESTIMATED TIME TO TOTAL PLANETARY DOMINATION: FOUR CYCLES."

"CASUALTIES?"

"DRONE FORCES ARE SUSTAINING FOUR POINT EIGHT PERCENT CASUALTIES ACROSS ALL FRONTS," replied a second Strategist.

"IT IS ACCEPTABLE," said the Supreme, "INFORM THE EMPEROR. THE DALEKS WILL BE MASTERS OF CASTOR IV!"

"VICTORY! VICTORY! VICTORY!" screeched the assembled Daleks

"SUPREME!" said the Drone operating the ship's scanner, "DETECTING MULTIPLE READINGS APPROACHING FROM COORDINATES SIX-SIX-TWO."

"ON SCREEN," ordered the Supreme.

The bridge's main view screen activated. It was filled from edge to edge with lumps of rock; huge pieces of space debris hurtling towards the fleet.

"ALL SHIPS - OPEN FIRE! DEFEND THE FLEET!" cried the Supreme. "NEGATIVE!" replied a Strategist, "WEAPONSFIRE WILL NOT BE SUFFICIENT TO PROTECT THE FLEET!"

"WITHDRAWL IS THE MOST LOGICAL STRATEGY!" said a second Strategist.

"ALL SHIPS - WITHDRAW FROM PLANETARY ORBIT! WITHDRAW! _WITHDRAW_!"

The oncoming storm of rocks had already struck the edge of the Dalek fleet. Some ships fled. Some tried to hold position and blast the debris into smaller pieces but they could not fire fast or powerfully enough. The Supreme Dalek watched helplessly as dozens of smaller ships were crushed in the tide.

"EMERGENCY HYPERSPACE JUMP!" it screamed as the debris bore down on the larger battleships.

With a burst of light, Battleship Gamma-Nine disappeared.

* * *

"Is he dead?" gasped Amy, as the three remaining time travellers took shelter round the corner from the blinded Dalek.

"I don't think so," said Eleven, "I'm still here."

"What happens if he _is_ dead?" said Rory, "Will he turn into you?"

"I shouldn't think so."

"Oh good."

"He wouldn't have time, what with the universe exploding."

"Not so good then?"  
"No," said Eleven, leaning cautiously back round the corner. There was no sign of Ten or Captain ZacFan. The Dalek drone had stopped firing.

"EMERGENCY TRANSMAT!" it cried. For a second it glowed with a bright light and then it vanished.

"Where's it gone?" Amy asked, looking over Eleven's shoulder.

"Back to the fleet," said Eleven nervously, "That means its superiors will soon know that I'm here, which is _very _not good."

Cautiously, he approached the shattered hole that Ten and ZacFan had punched through the wall.

"Hello?" Eleven called, "Can you hear me?"

With much coughing, Ten remerged onto the street.

"Are you alright?" asked Amy, rushing over to him. He was covered in grey dust but seemed otherwise unharmed.

"Where's the captain?" asked Eleven.

"Dead," Ten wheezed. Amy helped to brush him down, rather more thoroughly than was necessary.

"Later, Pond!" snapped Eleven, "The Daleks could already know that I'm here. We have to get to the TARDIS _now!"_

"Yes… right," said Amy suddenly, remembering where she was. They set off again. Rory was glaring jealously at Ten but he said nothing.

The streets were deserted but the approaching battle sounded frighteningly close. Ahead lay the Emerald Monastery, surrounded by an immaculate garden filled with pink and purple plants. Now that they were nearer, Amy saw that the Monastery had been damaged during the Dalek bombardment. A large section of the southern wall had collapsed inwards. This was fortunate for the time travellers, as the tall front doors were still shut.

As quickly as they dared, they scrambled up the sloping pile of rubble and into the breach the energy beam had blasted through the wall. Amy gasped. The interior of the Monastery was like all Castorian buildings: a deep, round pit with many tunnels branching off from it, only this was large enough to contain a cathedral. Above the pit, the dome of green crystal refracted the sunlight like a canopy of leaves in a forest. Everything beneath it was turned to luscious green, making even the blackened rubble seem vital and organic. What was left of the pit was decorated with works of Castorian art, which seemed ugly and strange to Amy, and dotted with benches suitable only for their insect-like physique. The rest of the room had been buried beneath the collapsing south wall, or burned away by the energy beam. And at the very bottom…

"The TARDIS!" cried Amy, pointing to the distant blue box.

"Quick!" said Eleven.

He went careering down the remains of the south wall, dislodging a minor avalanche of green stone in the process. Ten, Amy and Rory did their best to keep pace with him. They were about halfway down the slope when they heard sounds of movement behind them.

"Down!" hissed Eleven, dropping to his belly and looking back up towards the breach. The others followed his example, trying to hide behind the larger pieces of stone. Two human figures appeared at the top of the slope, silhouetted against the sunlight.

"What're you lot lying around for?" called Nine cheerfully.

"Amy! Rory!" shouted Rose, waving to them. She and Nine scrambled down to meet the other time travellers.

"You took your time," said Eleven.

"Well I would have been here sooner," replied Nine, "only I had to make sure all the asteroids stayed in orbit. I didn't want to crush a city by mistake."

"Asteroids?"

"You should have seen it. It was amazing!" Rose gushed, "He got this spaceship, right, and _rammed _it into this moon…"

"Yes, yes I'm sure it was all very gratuitous and unnecessary," said Eleven, "So the fleet's taken care of?"

"Absolutely," said Nine, grinning despite Eleven's comment, "It's gone; destroyed; _smashed_! And what's not smashed is scattered all over this system. No more reinforcements, no more orders from the command ships: their ground forces are as good as dead."

"But that will still take time," said Eleven cautiously, "I trust you parked somewhere sensible?"

"Hidden in a grotto in the gardens," said Nine, glaring, "I'm not the one who lost his ship and dragged us all into this mess, remember?"

Eleven opened his mouth to reply but he was interrupted by Rory:

"Then hadn't we better get on with retrieving it?"

"Hmm? Yes, we probably should," Eleven muttered, suddenly absorbed in adjusting his bowtie.

"The sooner the better," grumbled Nine.

The time travellers descended the slope, heading towards the TARDIS. There was no sign of life about it. The doors were shut and there was nobody nearby. The Monastery appeared totally deserted.

"I'm not picking up anything unusual," said Eleven, making passes at the TARDIS with his sonic screwdriver.

"Maybe it just malfunctioned? Took off on its own?" suggested Amy.

"No," Nine shook his head, "It wouldn't do that, not without somebody making some serious modifications to it."

"Well, there's only one way to tell," said Eleven. He reached for the door handle.

"Move away from the ship."

Everybody turned to look at Ten. He was pointing a pistol at Eleven.


	4. The Collector

**Chapter 4: The Collector**

"I won't tell you again. Move away from the ship," said Ten, gesturing at Eleven with his pistol. It was a strange, elongated design, made of a bronze-like metal.

Slowly, Eleven stepped back from the TARDIS.

"Who are you?" said Nine.

"And what have you done with him – me – _him?" _said Eleven. Ten shrugged.

"I left him where I found him. Hurt, maybe dead; I don't know," he said. The more he spoke, the more it was clear that his voice was not his own: it was higher and more nasal than Ten's.

"Tell us who you are!" demanded Nine, taking a step towards him. The man with Ten's face turned his weapon on Nine.

"You first," he said sharply.

"I'm the Doctor," said Nine, his voice potent with anger.

"So am I," said Eleven, no less stern.

The man who was not Ten raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"The Doctor_, _is it? Then… I am the Collector."

With his free hand he reached inside his suit. Suddenly, a different man stood before them. His face was thin and dominated by a pair of large, round dark glasses. His head was completely bald, which only increased his resemblance to an oversized beetle. He was dressed in a black one-piece suit, overlaid with a long, sleeveless white coat.

"This is a Mark Forty TARDIS, isn't it?" he said, his expression alive with interest, "It must be rare these days; probably unique. Am I right?"

"What do you want?" said Nine.

"I am the Collector. What do you think I want?"

The Collector turned and fired a beam of yellow energy at the TARDIS. The beam flowed over it, surrounding it with an aura of yellow light. A moment later, the TARDIS and the light had disappeared. The time travellers gave a cry of alarm.

"Stay where you are!" ordered the Collector, turning his weapon back on the Doctors.

"The last TARDIS in existence," he crowed, "I shall give it pride of place.

"Now I doubt that you will be able to follow me, but just in case…"

He adjusted an instrument on the side of his weapon and turned it on Rose. The yellow beam struck her before she could even scream. Then she too was gone. Nine bellowed and tried to hurl himself at the Collector but Rory and Eleven held him back.

"You'll find her in the Caves of Ragozine," said the Collector, "But I'd hurry if I were you. I'm not sure who else is there with her. Goodbye, Doctor."

He reached into his suit again and vanished in a burst of blue light. As soon as the Collector was gone, Nine turned and began to climb back up the sloping rubble towards the surface.

"Wait!" called Amy, following him, "What's happened to Rose? And what are these Caves of – of…?" She had only known her briefly but Amy had liked Rose and hated the thought that harm might have come to her.

"The Caves of Ragozine," said Eleven breathlessly, running to catch up, "They're on a moon in the Hellebore Cluster."

"And that's where Rose is?" said Rory. The three of them followed Nine up towards the breach in the Monastery wall. He did not look back at them.

"She was hit by a displacement beam," explained Eleven, "It's a security weapon; a non-lethal alternative to a gun. Instead of killing you it teleports you to a preset location, like a holding cell. I've never heard of one with such a long range though. The Hellebore Cluster is three galaxies away…"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," said Nine, still not looking back.

"What?" asked Eleven but Nine ignored him.

"What _are_ the Caves of Ravioli?" said Amy.

"Ragozine," said Eleven, glaring up at Nine, "He was a pirate. He hid his loot in the caves of an uncharted moon but he never came back to collect it."

"Why not?" said Rory

"He and his entire crew mysteriously vanished."

"Vanished?"

"Yes. Rumour has it that somebody rerouted their ship's navigation systems and flew them all into a star."

"Somebody, eh?" said Amy.

"Total speculation, of course," said Eleven, evasively, "They would have needed some sort of sonic… tool to do that. And there's not many of those kicking around."

"I'd imagine not."

"So the treasure's still there?" said Rory.

"In the caves? Probably. Not many people believe it exists; they think it's just a legend."

"So Rose will be safe there?" said Amy hopefully.

"Maybe," said Eleven but his tone was not encouraging.

They climbed out through the breach and into the Monastery's gardens. Nine was already striding off between the purple-leafed trees when Eleven and his companions emerged.

"Wait!" Eleven called to him.

"If you can't keep up, I'll leave you behind!" snapped Nine, looking back at them over his shoulder.

"No, wait! We've got to go back for Ten!" said Eleven, running ahead to place himself in Nine's path, "What if the Daleks find him?"

"_You_ go look for him then! _I'm_ going after Rose!" said Nine fiercely.

"Has something happened to Rose?"

Everybody turned. Limping towards them through the trees, coated in a thick layer of grey dust, came Ten.

"Oh!" cried Amy, running over to him, "Are you alright?" She brushed the dust away from his forehead, revealing an ugly dark bruise.

"I'm fine," he said, with a smile that sent butterflies swirling in Amy's stomach, "The Dalek hardly touched me. I was trying to climb out of the house when something hit me from behind. That's how I got this." He pointed to his head. "But I'm alright. Tell me what's happened to Rose."

As quickly as they could, Amy and Rory explained what had happened down in the Monastery. The other Doctors kept silent. Nine paced up and down impatiently. Eleven twined his fingers together. As Amy and Rory's story unfolded, Ten's expression grew harder and more threatening. When they had finished, he spoke very softly:

"You let him take her."

"How _dare _you…!" snarled Nine, grabbing Ten by the front of his jacket. Ten thrust him back. Eleven got between his other selves while Rory and Amy did their best to restrain them.

"There was nothing I could do!" Nine yelled.

"_I _could have done something!" said Ten.

"None of us could have saved her," said Eleven, making a visible effort to keep calm.

"Stay out of this!" snarled Ten, "You didn't know her. You didn't –"

"I still care for her," said Eleven, cutting across Ten, "Never doubt that." His voice was level but there was a force to it no less powerful than Ten's manic anger.

"We _all _care for her," Amy said gently. Ten and Nine relaxed, if only a little.

"You've still got your TARDIS?" said Ten stiffly.

"Just over there," replied Nine. His tone was civil but black anger still boiled in his eyes.

The time travellers walked the last few hundred metres to the TARDIS in a tense silence. The three Doctors kept their distance from one another, a look of furious determination on their faces. Amy and Rory held back a little to give them space. Amy felt like she was in the company of three large, strange animals that might turn and bite without warning. They found the TARDIS where Nine had said it would be; hidden, undisturbed, in a garden grotto.

"There's something you need to see," said Nine as he unlocked the door and led them inside. The three Doctors moved up to the console while Rory and Amy stood by the railing, waiting to intervene if they started fighting again.

"Look," said Nine, pushing a few buttons and pivoting the screen towards the other Doctors.

"But that's…" said Eleven.

"Impossible!" said Ten.

"Apparently not," said Nine brusquely, moving around the console to activate the engines.

"Hey! _What's_ impossible?" said Rory, irritated at being kept out of the conversation.

"The planet," said Ten.

"What about it?"

"It's in the wrong place," said Eleven, "I didn't notice it before; I was too busy with the Daleks. But we're light years from where we're supposed to be…"

"And the Caves of Ragozine," said Ten, "They're less than a sector away. They're not supposed to be in the same _galaxy _as us."

"So someone's moved them," concluded Amy.

"Not just them," said Nine, "The ancient city of Cur; the Felman Lux Library; the zero gravity gardens of Hambala…"

"Oh they're amazing! I _have _to take you there one day," Eleven said to Rory and Amy.

"They're all within a couple light years of here," Nine continued, ignoring Eleven, "And that's not all. There are dozens of worlds, all crammed into a few sectors of space."

"The most beautiful; the most valuable; the most important worlds in time and space," said Ten, grim faced, "Someone's building up one hell of a collection."

"And the TARDIS just got added to it," said Amy.

"Not just the TARDIS," said Nine, "Us too."

"What?"

"See for yourself," said Nine, throwing a series of levers. The TARDIS engines powered up, the control room shuddered and jerked and then suddenly fell still.

"I just tried to fly away," said Nine, "Only a few hundred light years – that's nothing for the TARDIS. Now have a look outside."

Amy walked over and opened the door. They were still in the pink and purple gardens of the Emerald Monastery.

"It's a sort of pocket universe," explained Eleven, "Somehow, the Collector has made his own bubble of space and time _outside_ of normal reality. That's his collection – a little universe of his own."

"And we can't leave?" said Rory.

"No," said Eleven, "But we should be able to travel around inside."

"So let's do it," said Ten sharply, "Rose is waiting."

* * *

"Is she dead?"

Somebody nudged Rose with what felt like a steel toecap. She winced and tried to roll over. Her whole body felt stiff, like she had been sitting in the same position for hours.

"No, she's alive," said a second voice. It sounded disappointed.

"Well pick her up then," ordered the first voice. Rough hands grabbed Rose under the arms and hauled her to her feet.

"Wha-? What the-?" she murmured, staring around her. At first everything was just a dark blur but she quickly focused on the man standing in front of her. Very large, both in height and girth, he had a dark beard and a mop of dark, shaggy hair.

"Can you hear me?" the man asked. Rose recognised him as the first speaker; a growling bass that suggested a heavy smoker.

"Yeah… Yeah, I can" said Rose. She could now make out her surroundings quite clearly. She was in a large tunnel, lit by glowing orbs set into the wall at intervals. Standing around her was a gang of rough men, mostly human but some aliens. They were dressed in a mixture of practical, dark work clothes. Every one of them was armed.

"You wanna let go of me?" Rose said to the two holding her arms. The hairy man nodded and they stepped back.

"The name's Jackson," said the hairy man, "Who sent you?"

"Sent me?" said Rose, "I dunno… I wasn't _sent _here. There's was this… this guy with a sorta ray gun…"

"She's lyin'," said a black man dismissively. He was dressed more lavishly than the others: all in red with a golden sash across his chest.

"I'm not!" said Rose hotly, "I didn't mean to come here. I don't even know where I am."

"Oh really?" the black man sneered, "Are we supposed to believe that you just _happened _to stumble across the lost treasure of Ragozine?"

"I'm askin' the questions here, Mercadier," growled Jackson.

"Get on with it then."

"You just shut up," growled Jackson, pressing his face up close to Mercadier's, "My ship; my venture; my rules. Remember that."

"My apologies, _captain_," said Mercadier. He sounded anything but apologetic.

"I cut her up, yes? She talk then, yes?"

Rose shuddered as an alien stepped forward, cradling a machete in its three-fingered hands. Its head was like a bat's: snubbed nose, shining red eyes, oversized ears and set of tiny needle-like teeth.

"Not now, Hom," said Jackson, waving the creature back, "Maybe later. Depends how talkative she's feeling.

"What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Rose."

"Well, Rose, you tell me who sent you here and I'll tell Hom here to put his knife away," said Jackson. He smiled but it was only a paper covering for the pitiless soul beneath.

"I already told you," said Rose slowly, trying to ignore the grotesque Hom, who still stroking his machete, "No one sent me. I just… beamed here."

"She's lyin'. Let Hom deal with her," said Mercadier. Jackson ignored him.

"You say you're not a spy?" he asked Rose.

"That's right."

"You're part of another group then? Has Lybis sold the charts to someone else?"

"No… I mean, I don't know. I _was_ part of a group but not here. They're all back on the other planet. Castor something."

Some of the gang laughed at this.

"Either you're very stupid, or a very poor liar," said Mercadier, sneering, "Probably both."

"The Castor system isn't in this galaxy, sweetheart," said Jackson patiently, "No more lies now. I'd rather keep your pretty face the way it is but if you don't start being straight with me, I'm going to let Hom have some fun."

"It's true!" said Rose desperately, "I was there! Then this guy called the Collector shot me with this gun and I was here."

Jackson sighed.

"Hom. Get on with it."

Hom squeaked with delight. Rose tried to back away but the rest of the gang closed in around her.

"You don't want to be doin' this," she said, trying her best to sound tough, "I'm travelling with someone called the Doctor. If you hurt me, he'll make you regret it!"

"A doctor, yes. You'll need one soon, yes!" said Hom, stroking the blade of his machete with one long finger.

"Please!" Rose cried, "I don't know anything about this place, or the treasure. I'm travelling with the Doctor, that's all I swear!"

Hom grabbed her throat. She tried to push him back but his fingers were fearsomely strong.

"Stop," said Jackson suddenly. Hom released her with a hiss.

"She's lying," said Mercadier, rolling his eyes.

"Maybe," said Jackson, "but she's not going to talk."

"That's because I'm telling the truth," muttered Rose, massaging her sore neck.

"Don't think I trust you, just because I called Hom off," Jackson said, walking around her, "You might be a spy, or a scout for another group after the treasure. So don't try runnin' off or anything like that, right? If you do, I'll shoot you myself. Got that?"

"Yeah, got it," said Rose sullenly.

"Still, it'll be nice to have a bit of skirt with us, right lads?" The others chuckled approvingly. "Especially a tasty little thing like _you_," Jackson said, punctuating his sentence by giving Rose a slap on the rump. Without thinking, she spun round to hit him. Jackson caught her wrist.

"Listen sweetheart," he said softly, as she gasped at the pain of his grip, "That was me bein' friendly. Next time you try that, I'll break your teeth. Understand?"

Rose nodded.

"Good," said Jackson. He let her go and she sank to the floor, clutching her bruised wrist.

"Tie her hands," Jackson ordered two of the gang, "The rest of you move out. We've wasted enough time as it is."


	5. The Caves of Ragozine

**Chapter 5: The Caves of Ragozine **

Amy and Rory crouched beside the three Doctors at the entrance to a wide cavern. They had left the TARDIS in a little side cave a few hundred metres away. The cavern before them was lit by rows of glowing orbs set into the walls. Various tunnels led off in different directions. In the centre of the cavern was a squat, ugly little spaceship. It looked heavily armed and was guarded by three tough, heavily armed men. Stencilled on the prow in red letters was its name: SS _Bad Wolf. _

"No registration tag," Ten said softly, not wishing to attract the guards' attention, "Whoever they are, they didn't want the authorities to follow them."

"So they're criminals? Like pirates?" said Amy. She could not help smiling as she said it. Pirates sounded exciting and romantic.

"Treasure hunters, certainly," said Nine, "That's the only reason anybody would come here."

"Do you think they've found Rose?" asked Rory.

"Maybe," said Eleven, "These caves are quite big."

"So we might find her first," said Amy optimistically.

"Let's hope so," said Eleven but he did not sound confident.

"You lot are staying here," said Nine brusquely. He turned away from the ship and began to walk back down the tunnel. Ahead, beyond the cave where the TARDIS was hidden, the tunnel forked in three directions.

"Hey!" said Eleven, running to catch up with Nine, "Who put you in charge?"

"Rose is with _me,_" said Nine, not slowing down, "She's my responsibility. I'll find her. You lot just get in the way."

"Because you're somuch cleverer than the rest of us, is that it?" said Eleven angrily.

"Precisely. So shut up and get out my way," said Nine. He disappeared down the right hand tunnel, leaving the others at the junction.

"Aren't you going to go after him?" Amy asked Eleven. He turned on her with a furious expression:

"No, Pond, I am _not_! Now go back to the TARDIS with Rory. I'm going to find Rose."

"What?" cried Amy.

"I won't risk losing you too," said Eleven, "Back to the TARDIS, _now."_

"You can come with me if you like," said Ten quickly. Amy had the feeling he said it just to annoy Eleven. He succeeded.

"Oh _fine!" _Eleven yelled, "Go with him. Go on! I can do this just as easily on my own…"

He stormed off down the middle tunnel.

"Good riddance," Ten said quietly as he watched Eleven go.

Amy was not so sure. All this bickering was making her uncomfortable. She could see that Rory was uneasy too. They both knew what the Doctor was capable of when angered. What would happen if he was set at odds with himself?

"Right then. Amy? Rory?" Ten gestured to the left hand tunnel, "_Allons-y!" _

* * *

"Someone's coming."

"Take cover!" hissed Jackson. Rose was forced to the ground while the gang pressed themselves against the walls of the tunnel.

They had been marching for a long time; Rose was not sure exactly long, as she could not check her watch with her hands bound. Jackson and his gang did not seem to have much idea about where they were going. They took turns seemingly at random and doubled back on themselves more than once. The gang were getting more and more frustrated. Mercadier was more openly critical of Jackson. He kept suggesting that the treasure was only a legend and that Jackson had brought them all there for no reason.

Rose heard footsteps approaching. It was the first person they had encountered since she had been captured. She wanted to shout a warning to whoever it was but she did not dare; not with the grotesque Hom so close.

Eleven walked around the corner and was instantly covered by a dozen guns.

"Hi!" he said brightly.

"Who are you? Talk quickly or you're dead!" said Jackson, stepping forward.

"Me? I'm… I'm Ben Gunn. Pleased to meet you," said Eleven, offering his hand to Jackson, "I was marooned here."

"Marooned?" said Jackson, frowning, "But no one's been here for five hundred years."

"Yeah, it has been a bit lonely. I don't suppose you've got any cheese?"

"Cheese? What the f-?"

"So you're here for the treasure?" said Eleven quickly, "Of course you are! There's no other reason you'd be here. They haven't even opened a Greggs yet, which makes this the _only _place in the galaxy. You'll be looking for a guide, won't you? Every treasure hunting party needs a native guide. And that's me: your native guide! Well, as native as you can get on a barren moon that no one has set foot on for centuries…"

"You… you know where the treasure is?" said Jackson slowly, stunned by the barrage of words.

"That's right!" said Eleven happily, "I can take you right to it."

"Don't trust him," said Mercadier, "He's part of another group. I told you the girl was lying!"

Jackson looked between Mercadier and Eleven.

"You can lead us to the treasure?" he asked Eleven.

"Yes."

"Alright. Do it. But if this is a trick, then you're a dead man. Got that?"

"Go it."

"Stand down," Jackson ordered his men, "But keep an eye on him."

"You're making a mistake," said Mercadier.

"Are you questioning me?" growled Jackson. He held his pistol up. It was not actually pointing at anybody but the threat was there nonetheless. Mercadier just sneered and said shook his head.

"Good," said Jackson, turning back to Eleven, "Which way then?"

"Straight ahead, make a left, a right, another left, two more lefts and a right. You can't miss it," said Eleven smoothly. Jackson looked suspicious but nodded anyway.

"Move out," he said, waving his gang forward. The others holstered their weapons and started along the tunnel again. In the confusion Eleven managed to slip alongside Rose.

"Are you alright?" he whispered.

"Fine," she replied, "Where are the others?"

"Around," he said vaguely.

"Have you got a plan?"  
"I'm going to do a thing."

"A thing?"

"Yeah a really cunning and brilliant thing… that I will hopefully come up with before we get to the treasure or this lot realise I haven't a clue where I'm going."

"You're just making this up as you go along?"

Eleven looked at her with a serious expression.

"I know you haven't travelled with me," he said, "but trust me. I'm still the Doctor."

* * *

Amy, Rory and Ten watched in breathless silence as the strange group passed by below them. They had instantly spotted Rose in the middle, her hands bound behind her. Eleven was near the front, walking beside a huge, bearded man dressed in a set of well-worn khaki fatigues. The other members of the gang, mainly human but some alien, were similarly dressed: tough and practical, like their guns. They looked comfortable carrying them, like people used to violence.

"Have they captured him?" Rory whispered, nodding towards Eleven.

"Looks like it," muttered Ten, "Can't say I'm surprised. Oh I hope it's a _long _time before I have to regenerate..."

He turned away from the gallery that overlooked the lower path and began to climb back down to the tunnel they had been following earlier.

"So… have you got a plan?" asked Amy as she and Rory followed Ten into the tunnel.

"I'm going to give them a warning," said Ten, "That's my rule: everybody gets one warning."

"And what if they ignore it?"

"Then I destroy them."

Amy looked into Ten's face and felt a cold shiver of excitement pass through her body. His expression was both frightening and yet at the same time inspiring. That passion; that determination; she would never have imagined that her raggedy Doctor man could look so powerful.

The tunnel ran straight ahead for a few hundred metres before it turned and came out at the top of a short flight of stairs. These stairs led down into a larger, higher tunnel. When the gang with Rose and Eleven appeared a few minutes later they found Ten and his companions waiting in their path.

"Who the hell are _you?" _demanded the bearded man, as his group drew their weapons.

"My name's the Doctor," said Ten sternly, "I am –"

"No, Jackson! Don't listen to him!"

Eleven leapt between Ten and Jackson.

"He's another castaway," Eleven explained, "He's gone completely bonkers; thinks he's some kind of doctor."

"You said you were alone here!"

"As good as, with only this lunatic for company. You couldn't have a decent conversation with him if you tried. He talks complete gibberish -"  
"Oh that's rich, coming from you!" cried Ten indignantly.

"Hush now! Go and play somewhere else," Eleven said, shooing him away as if he was an irritating child, "The grown-ups are talking!"

"Ignore him!" Ten yelled to Jackson, "_He's _the lunatic."

"What about those other two? More castaways?" Jackson said slowly, gesturing to Amy and Rory.

"Err… yeah?" said Eleven, "Would you believe that we're all part of Castaways United?"

"No."

"Ah well, worth a try. Bye then!"

Eleven darted away from Jackson. Jackson raised his pistol to shoot Eleven in the back, only to find that he was now holding a pocket calculator.

"Thank you!" said Eleven cheerily, waving Jackson's pistol above his head as he ran.

"I told you!" shouted a black man dressed all in red, "He was playing with you all along."

"Just shut up and _kill them_!" roared Jackson. He seized a rifle from one of his men and sprayed the corridor ahead with bursts of red plasma.

"Run!" Ten cried to Amy and Rory as he set off after Eleven. Gunfire erupted behind them, filling the corridor with a kaleidoscope of different coloured plasma bolts. The time travellers turned a corner, unscathed by the fusillade, and continued to run.

"Hom, take six men and hunt them down!" ordered Jackson. The hideous bat-like alien squeaked with delight as he set off in pursuit.

"We should kill her too," said Mercadier, turning his gun on Rose, "They're all in it together."

"No," Jackson shook his head, "We need her alive. She's a hostage now."

"Just shoot her," said Mercadier, "What's one girl? When we find the treasure you can buy yourself a hundred just like her."

Jackson turned his gun on Mercadier.

"Put your gun down and step away," he said, "I won't say it again."

For a few seconds Mercadier could only stare at the muzzle of the rifle. Then he nodded and lowered his weapon.

"Good," said Jackson, before turning to address the rest of his men, "Move out, double time! There could be more of them on the way…"

* * *

"I had it all under control!"

"Oh yeah! That was _really _clear!"

"I had them right where I wanted them!"

"What, Rose in handcuffs and a gun to your head? It's original, I'll give you that!"

"Can you two old women stop bickering," Rory shouted at the two Doctors, "And just _run?" _

More bursts of brilliantly coloured plasma flew past, scorching deep black marks in the tunnel wall.

"Shoot, yes! Kill them all, yes!" squeaked Hom, brandishing his machete. The time travellers skidded around another corner, their pursuers close behind. More ill-aimed plasma bolts soared over their heads.

"All I'm saying is –" Eleven stopped suddenly.

"Don't just stand there!" cried Ten.

"Get down!" shouted Eleven, grabbing Rory and dragging him to the ground. Ten and Amy threw themselves onto their stomachs. A heartbeat later a wave of green energy rolled down the tunnel at waist height. It passed over the time travellers but struck Hom and his men, who collapsed without a sound.

"What… was… that?" panted Amy as Ten helped her to her feet.

"A Bolthoonian stun wave. But why? And how?" said Ten. He looked confused.

"Trip wire," said Eleven, picking up a piece of extremely thin thread, "I ran right into it."

"Okay, so that's the how," said Ten, "But who? I remember Ragozine – a harmless stun ray wasn't his style at all…"

"You _bloody idiots!" _shouted a familiar voice. The time travellers all turned to see Nine advancing towards them, his face dark with anger.

"That emitter only had enough charge for one burst," he cried, "I was going to use it to knock out the ones who captured Rose but now it's just scrap!"

"I'm sorry that our near death spoilt your plan," said Eleven waspishly. Nine ignored the sarcasm:

"So you should be! I had to cannibalise all the weapons I found for fuel cells. And all for nothing!"

"What about this?" said Eleven. He held up the pistol he had taken from Jackson.

"What? To power Bolthoonian technology? Not a chance," said Nine, knocking it out of Eleven's hand.

"Where'd you find the emitter anyway?" asked Ten.

"Back that way," Nine waved along the tunnel ahead of them, "There's a big stockpile of exotic weapons – all part Ragozine's treasure."

"The treasure? But that's what they're looking for – the ones who've got Rose!" said Amy.

"You're right. I've got to do something quickly," said Ten, starting to walk off.

"Oy! _You're _not going to do anything," said Nine, "_You're _going to wait in the TARDIS like I told you so you don't go blundering into things _again."_

Ten rounded on Nine and began shouting at him for telling him what to do. Eleven then weighed in, saying that he was the oldest of the three and they should both listen to him. As the argument rolled on, Amy bent down and retrieve the pistol that Nine had knocked out of Eleven's hand. She considered it for a moment. It was some sort of laser weapon, with a variety of settings from 'stun' to 'disintegrate'.

"What?" said Rory, seeing her expression.

"Come on. I've got a plan," she said. Slipping the pistol inside her jacket, she took his hand and led him away down the tunnel.

"But what about them?" Rory pointed back to where the Doctors were still locked in furious debate.

"I think it's up to us now, dear," Amy said, managing to sound more confident than she actually felt.

* * *

"This is it lads! We found it!"

The gang whooped and cheered as they bounded into the vast round cave. Lit from above by a single glowing orb, the cave was filled with boxes, barrels, crates and containers. There were clay amphora; crystal spheres like bowling balls; chests of reinforced plastic; shimmering jewels suspended in an anti-gravity field; stone pots burning with flames of living gold; statues of flawless diamond that changed form to suit the taste of whoever was looking at them; and dozens of treasures from worlds and cultures so alien that Rose simply did not possess the words to describe them.

The treasure was arranged in tiered rows, like an amphitheatre, descending to a round pit at the very bottom. The pit had been filled with coins of silver, bronze, gold and other metals, purple, green, polka dot, that Rose did not recognise. The gang descended on this pit like scavengers on a freshly killed carcass, greedily stuffing coins into their pockets or taking off their boots to fill them.

"Stop!" bellowed Jackson. Everybody froze, some still holding fistfuls of coin.

"We haven't got time to mess about," said Jackson, serious and business-like, "There's at least one other group here. That means that there could be more. We need to find the best stuff, get it back to the ship and get out of here. So get to it!"

"What about the girl?" said Mercadier, eyeing Rose menacingly.

"Put her down here," said Jackson, gesturing to a space beside the pit of coins, "If she tries to run for it, kill her."

Rose, her hands still tightly bound, was thrown down where Jackson had indicated and was then completely ignored in all the excitement. The gang went to work like the professional criminals they were, smashing containers one by one to discover what was inside, piling up what they wanted by the entrance and simply leaving what they did not where it fell.

As she watched their plundering, Rose noticed a strange figure flitting cautiously along one of the uppermost tiers. At first she dismissed it as one of the gang. But she continued to watch that tier. A few minutes later and she saw him clearly – it was Rory. He was carrying one of the crystal spheres. Very carefully, he rested it on top of a crate on the very topmost tier and then disappeared. Rose watched him as much as she dared to, afraid that she might draw the gang's attention to him. In ten minutes he had placed eight of the spheres around the topmost tier of the cave. Rose was just wondering where the other time travellers were when she heard somebody whistle from the cave entrance. Every head turned. Every jaw dropped.

"Hello boys," purred Amy Pond. She walked slowly down into the middle of the cave. Every man in the room followed her as she went. Her skirt, always short, was now hiked up so far that it was practically a belt. Her shirt was unbuttoned, if not indecently low, then so low it was clinging to decency by its very fingertips.

"You must be the _big _boss man," she said, approaching Jackson. She rolled the word 'big' around her mouth. Several of the men actually whimpered.

"Err… yeah? I mean: yeah," said Jackson, staring dumbfounded at her.

"So you're the one with the _big _spaceship?" she said, running her tongue over her lips. Rose could see beads of sweat standing out on Jackson's forehead.

"Captain, what are you doing? She's one of them!" said Mercadier, drawing his gun. Without turning his head, Jackson raised his rifle and shot Mercadier through the chest.

"You were saying?" he said to Amy.

"It's just that… I like a man with a _big… _spaceship."

Amy was right in front of Jackson now. Slowly she reached out, one hand running playfully down his chest, the other gently prising the rifle from his unresisting hand.

"Good boy," she murmured, sliding her arms around his neck. She leant forward, pressing her body up against his, and kissed him lightly, teasingly on the lips. Then in one swift movement she brought her knee up hard into his groin. Jackson gave a groan and folded up like a sack of potatoes. Amy had already produced a pistol from inside her jacket.

"Rory, _now!" _she cried, firing the pistol straight above her head. Two things happened almost simultaneously. The red laser beam from the pistol struck the lighting orb in the ceiling and was refracted in dozens of different directions. Eight beams struck the crystal spheres planted around the top tier of the room, which in turn refracted the beam. For an instant the cavern was filled with crisscrossing laser beams. At the same moment Rory leapt from his hiding place next to Rose, carrying the lid from one of the containers. He and Amy dropped down beside Rose and the three of them sheltered beneath the lid.

There was silence in the cave. Cautiously, Amy and Rory pushed the lid aside and look around. All the treasure hunters lay on the ground. Not one of them was moving.

"Are they…?" said Rose. Amy shook her head.

"Just stunned," she said, undoing the rope that was tying Rose's hands.

"Thanks," she said, sitting up and trying to rub the feeling back into her wrists, "What was all that with the… the legs and everything?"

"I used to be a kiss-o-gram," said Amy, grinning.

"No? Seriously?"

"That's how we met, wasn't it?" Amy said to Rory, "Officer Pond. 'You have the right to remain silent'. Remember?"

"Oh yeah," said Rory wistfully, staring off into the middle distance.

His pleasant reminiscences were interrupted at the three Doctors appeared at the entrance, still arguing at the tops of their voices. They paused when they saw the cave.

"Rose!" they all cried, running down to her.

"I'm fine," she said, holding up her hands, "No thanks to you lot."

"Rose, I promise. I was on my way -" Nine began but Rose cut him off:

"No you weren't! You bein' typical blokes: too busy comparing who's got the biggest… the biggest _screwdriver_ to actually do anything useful!"

"Actually, mine _is_ slightly bigger…" Eleven said but Rose silenced him with a look.

"So err… how didyou do all this?" asked Ten, waving at the unconscious bodies lying all around.

"Oh you know," said Amy airily, "Just a bit of co-operation."

The Doctors looked very sheepish.

"Ah…"

"Right…"

"Yes, of course…"

"Well congratulations!"

The time travellers span round. The Collector was standing above them on one of the higher tiers.

"I enjoyed that immensely. I wonder where I should send you next?" he said, levelling his displacement ray at them.


	6. The Renegade Prison

**Chapter 6 – The Renegade Prison**

"So you're the Collector," said Ten.

"Oh, you survived?" said the Collector. He sounded pleasantly surprised.

"_Three_ Time Lords to entertain me. Aren't I lucky?" he said gleefully, his dark glasses flashing in the light.

"We're not here to play your games," said Ten.

"Oh yes you are," said the Collector, "That's the best thing about having a _living_ collection: you can make it do whatever you like! Where should I send you, hmm? Could you survive the jungles of Punt? Or the barbarian hordes of Barsoom? Or maybe I'll collect something new for you to fight. A regiment of Sontaran warriors perhaps? Or a swarm of Vashta Nerada?"

"You're sick," said Nine.

"You don't seem to understand," snarled the Collector, revealing his yellowing teeth, "You're _mine _now! Stupid old men, pottering around the universe in your antiquated time machine. Don't you understand? Your day is over. This is _my_ universe. I created it! And now you are mine too. I can do whatever I like with you. I could kill you right now if I wanted to; beam you into deep space or the heart of planet."

"No," said Eleven.

"What?"

"You're the one who doesn't understand," said Eleven, placing himself between his companions and the Collector, "You don't understand who you are dealing with here."

"I'm the Oncoming Storm; the Lord of Time; the nightmare that haunts the sleep of every monster," said Nine, standing beside Eleven.

"I'm the Doctor. And I'm going to bring your whole world crashing down," said Ten, moving forward to join them.

The Collector gave a shout of laughter. He raised his displacement ray but the Doctors were too fast for him. They drew their sonic screwdrivers. The Collector froze, perhaps thinking that they were weapons. The three screwdrivers whirred. Three large crates on the tier above the Collector collapsed outwards, spilling thousands of gold coins that cascaded down towards him in a glittering wave. The Collector gave a cry of alarm and vanished in a flash of blue light.

"Quick, run!" shouted Nine. The time travellers bounded up to the cave entrance, stepping over the unconscious bodies of Jackson and his gang, and fled into the tunnels.

"The useful thing about screwdrivers," Ten said brightly to Amy and Rose, "is that they undo screws!"

"Follow me!" cried Eleven, "I remember the way perfectly."

An hour later, as they doubled back on themselves for the seventh time, it was clear that he did not.

"It's this way, you idiot," Nine snapped, pointing down a side corridor.

"Oy!" said Rose, "I thought you lot were going to work together now? Be a proper team, yeah?"

Nine scowled. He turned and bowed with exaggerated politeness to Eleven.

"After you, Doctor."

"No, no, after _you_, Doctor!" said Eleven, holding out the tails of his tweed jacket in a curtsey. Rose rolled her eyes and walked past them.

Nine's sense of direction proved to be much better than Eleven's. It took them only a few minutes to find the TARDIS, hidden where they had left it in the side tunnel near Jackson's ship. The time travellers were on edge as they approached the police box but they saw no sign of the Collector.

"Probably teleported back wherever he came from," said Nine as he unlocked the door.

"So," said Amy, as they all filed into the console room, "have you got a grand master plan worked out?"

"Err… not as such," said Ten.

"Going to make it up as you go along?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"But now we've got something to go on," said Eleven, fiddling with the console, "The Collector called this 'his universe'. That implies that he's based somewhere _inside _this pocket reality. Which narrows our search down to…"

"One hundred and six planets, moons and other bodies," said Nine, spinning the screen round to face to Eleven, "Where do you want to start?" he added sarcastically.

"Well it's not like we've got a choice, is it?" said Amy, "We're trapped in space _and_ time."

The three Doctors turned and stared at her.

"What?" she said.

"Of course!" they cried. Nine's hands flashed back and forth across the console as Ten and Eleven hovered at his shoulder.

"Don't you hate it when he does that?" Amy said to Rose.

"Figures something out and then doesn't bother to tell you? Yeah," she sighed.

"Of course _what?_" said Rory crossly.

"Time!" said Nine.

"What about it?"

"Oh do keep up, Rory!" snapped Eleven, "This universe has a timeline, just like ours. So it must have a _beginning_; its own Big Bang. All we have to do is go back in time as far as we can…"

"… and we'll find whatever the Collector is using to create this 'collection' of his," concluded Ten.

Nine entered a series of commands into the console and pulled a lever. The TARDIS lurched, shuddered and was still.

"Open the door," he said to the others, "This universe is only a few seconds old. The only thing out there is what created it…"

Ten and Eleven scrambled to be the first one at the door. The humans followed at a more relaxed pace. Ten got there first and threw the door back. Beyond the TARDIS was pure void: no planets, no moons, not even a distant star. Vivid against the pure darkness was something resembling a high tower of faded bronze. Four thin golden struts extended from the top and bottom like antenna or probes. It looked quite small; no bigger than a large skyscraper.

"But that's…?" said Eleven, frowning.

"Impossible!" said Ten. He had put on a pair of 3D glasses and was examining the tower intently.

"It can't be," said Nine, joining them at the door.

"But it is. It couldn't be anything else," said Ten.

"And it explains everything," added Eleven.

"Excuse me," said Rory, "Not all of us have Phds in being a know-it-all! What _is_ that thing?"

"It's a prison," said Eleven, not in the least upset at being called a know-it-all, "A Time Lord prison. It must have slipped through the time lock somehow…"

"The Dalek Emperor, the Cult of Skaro, the Master, now this; the Time War's leaking like a sieve," muttered Ten, pocketing his 3D glasses.

"Sorry," he said, turning to Nine and Rose, "You… should probably forget you heard that."

"I don't get it," said Amy, "What's a prison got to do with all this?"

"Not just any prison: a prison for renegade Time Lords," explained Eleven, "I had to break out of one once."

"What were you in prison for?" said Rory.

"Long story; I'll explain later," said Eleven vaguely.

"It's designed to hold Time Lords," said Nine, "It's fitted with a device called a Temporal Anchor. It prevents anybody interfering with the time stream _inside _the station. Otherwise your future self could use a TARDIS to break you out. Then all you have to do is come back and rescue your _past _self. It creates a stable time loop but it works."

"But that would only affect the prison, right?" said Rose.

"Yes, but if you were especially _brilliant, _and crazy, you could boost the Anchor's field," said Ten gleefully, "Create your own personal bubble of space and time!"

"That also explains how the Collector has been able to pull in other planets and ships," said Eleven, every bit as giddy as Ten, "He's modified the Temporal Anchor to create a Time Scoop!"

"_Fantastic!_" said Nine, beaming.

The Doctors turned and dashed back up to the console. The humans trailed after them.

"We need to get inside and disable the Anchor," said Eleven, as the Doctors clustered around the scanner.

"No chance," Nine shook his head, "All the defences are up. It's _designed_ to stop a TARDIS getting in or out."

"And this one isn't even armed," said Ten ruefully.

The Doctors sighed. Eleven and Ten started to pace round the console, while Nine leant against a pillar and scowled.

"Err…" Rose raised a tentative hand, "If we need a battleship… Why don't we just go and get one?"

* * *

"You go."

"No, you. I insist."

"But you're _far_ more annoying than me."

"Oh I don't know about that…"

"Would you two clowns just _get on with it!"_

The TARDIS door opened and Ten stepped out on to the bridge of Dalek Battleship Gamma-Nine.

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" shrieked the Daleks surrounding the blue box. Energy beams flashed from their gunsticks, striking harmlessly against the TARDIS's force field.

"Hello!" said Ten cheerfully, hands stuffed into his pockets, "Only me! The Oncoming Storm. Wow, you're all looking… big. You should probably think about going on a diet."

"SILENCE!" said the Supreme Dalek.

"And what's with the new paintjob?" asked Ten, looking at the assembled red, blue and white Daleks, "Did you guys get spliced with Teletubbies or something?"

"WE ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE BEINGS YOU REFER TO AS TELETUBBIES!" said the Supreme.

"Ha!" Ten laughed, "I made you say 'Teletubbies'! Oh that's made my day…"

"SILENCE! THE NEW PARADIGM WILL NOT BE RIDICULED! EXTERMINATE! _EXTERMINATE!_"

The Daleks launched another barrage of energy beams at Ten but he had already disappeared back into the TARDIS.

"Yep, they're annoyed now," he said, approaching the other time travellers.

"Let's just hope they're too annoyed to shoot straight," said Nine, powering up the TARDIS engines, "That force field can handle individual Daleks. I'm not sure about a whole fleet…"

The TARDIS disappeared from the bridge and reappeared in deep space, directly before the remnants of the Dalek fleet. Nearly half the ships were missing, and many of the survivors bore damage from the attack that had driven them from Castor IV. They were not so badly damaged that they could not fight though.

"They're charging weapons," Ten announced, glancing at one of the console's many displays. Nine nodded and began to work the controls. A vortex of shimmering light appeared around the TARDIS. The Dalek fleet spread out to bring their weapons to bear on the tiny blue box. A few red energy beams struck the force field. Inside the console room the time travellers staggered under the impact.

"The sooner the better," said Eleven, with a meaningful look at Nine. "I'm still stabilising the vortex!" he replied angrily.

More energy beams stabbed at the TARDIS. The console room shook. Mauve lights began to shine on the console. Sirens screamed.

"Oh _shut up!" _shouted Ten, seizing a hammer and beating the console furiously. Most of the lights winked out. The sirens were muted.

"Got it!" said Nine, throwing a final lever. The shimmering vortex solidified into a solid tunnel of opaque blue clouds. With a burst of light from its lamp the TARDIS shot away from the Dalek fleet and into the tunnel. The Daleks reformed into a narrow column and followed it into the vortex. They did not fire as they pursued; even Daleks were not so reckless as to discharge energy weapons inside a time vortex.

The TARDIS left the far end of the vortex with the fleet close behind. Ahead lay the Time Lord prison. The TARDIS barrelled towards it. The Dalek fleet followed, spreading out again into attack formation.

"Come on, come on…" muttered Nine, staring intently at the console screen.

Red energy beams leapt from the Dalek saucers, bursting against the prison's shields in flashes of yellow and red light. The station retaliated by firing numerous yellow displacement rays. One struck a Dalek ship and it vanished. The Dalek ships scattered; individual saucers swooping and diving to avoid the prison's defences. Energy beams and displacement rays crisscrossed. The TARDIS hung back from the battle, forgotten in the confusion.

"Yes!" cried Eleven, "Good old, predictable Daleks! You can always count on them to try and kill anything you put in front of them."

"The prison's force field is being weakened," announced Ten, "It's at seventy percent… Fifty percent… Blimey, forty two percent! They must be diverting all their power to their weapons…"

The space around the station was thick with blindingly bright energy beams but the Daleks were skilled pilots. Few ships vanished.

"Force field at thirty percent. Go for it!" said Ten. Nine hammered a series of commands into the console. The TARDIS engines sang as it disappeared and reappeared inside the prison.

Slowly, and with great care, the time travellers opened the door. The humans gasped.


	7. The Vault of Days

**Chapter 7: The Vault of Days**

"It's…" said Rory.

"Bigger on the inside? Yep," said Ten, following the humans out of the TARDIS.

The room they had landed in was impossibly big. The walls, covered in intricate designs in crimson and gold, rose hundreds of metres to the vaulted ceiling. There was no floor: the TARDIS was standing on a round platform floating above an unfathomably deep pit. Spindly gold walkways connected the platform to several doors in the distant walls. The whole room would have easily contained the prison as it appeared from the outside. The TARDIS was no more a tiny blue spec set against the gold.

"And it's as camp as a row tents," said Nine brightly, "My people – one of the most advanced civilizations in all of history. They built the greatest time machines ever devised but when it came to buildings they were absolutely tasteless."

"How are we gonna find the TARDIS? This place is _huge,_" said Rose.

"The Collector said he was going to give it pride of place," said Eleven, "And where do you put your most prized possessions?"

"In the safest place you can find," concluded Amy.

"Right," said Eleven, "That will be the command level – at the very top."

He turned away from the TARDIS and headed towards one of the thin gold walkways.

"Yes, and it's _this _way," said Nine, pointing to a different walkway.

"Hold on," said Ten, "We need to deactivate the Temporal Anchor first."

"We can do that when we've got the TARDIS," said Eleven irritably.

"Oh don't start," said Rose, despairingly.

"What's the point of escaping if the Collector's still got a Time Scoop to pull us back with?" said Ten. He started towards a third walkway.

"He's got a point," said Amy, following Ten.

"Let's just get the TARDIS first. The Anchor can wait," said Nine.

Ten was about to reply when a clear, high pitched note rang out through the room. The thin walkways detached themselves from the platform and began to retract slowly into the walls.

"Rose!" Nine shouted as he was pulled away from the platform. She was standing on the far side, beside the TARDIS door.

"There's no time!" cried Eleven, who was closest to her, "Come with me or you'll be stranded there!"

Rose leapt across to Eleven's side. Rory jumped over to Nine.

"What's happening?" Amy shouted.

"Security system!" said Eleven, "The Collector must have activated it."

"I'll try and disarm it!" shouted Nine, "You find the TARDIS!"

"And we'll get the Anchor!" replied Ten.

The three pairs of time travellers were receding rapidly into the distance, eventually dwindling into tiny stick figures. The TARDIS was left behind, a vivid blue dot in the centre of the room.

* * *

"TARGET'S DEFENCES HAVE BEEN PENETRATED!" announced a Strategist Dalek.

"ANALYSE SITUATION!" ordered the Supreme Dalek. The Fifth Imperial Fleet was performing well – perhaps well enough to redeem itself from its humiliating defeat on Castor IV.

The Supreme was not puzzled by the sudden appearance of a Time Lord space station. Its function was to command, not to theorise. Its thought process was simple: the station belonged to the Time Lords. The Time Lords were enemies. Enemies must be destroyed.

"BOARDING ACTION IS THE OPTIMUM STRATEGY FOR VICTORY!" said another Strategist.

"THE STRATEGY IS ACCPETABLE!" said the Supreme, opening a communications channel to the fleet, "THIS THE SUPREME! ALL DRONES PREPARE FOR IMMEDIATE BOARDING ACTION!"

"I OBEY!" chorused thousands of voices.

On the bridge one of the fleet's few Scientist Daleks, with its distinctive orange travel unit, turned to address the Supreme.

"SUPREME!" it shrieked, "TARGET CONTAINS UNKNOWN TECHNOLOGY! IT MUST STUDIED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE EMPIRE!"

"AGREED!" said the Supreme, "THIS IS THE SUPREME! THE TARGET'S INFRASTRUCTURE IS TO BE PRESERVED! EXTERMINATE ALL LIFEFORMS ABOARD!"

"I OBEY!" chorused the Drones, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! _EXTERMINATE!" _

* * *

Amy and Ten found themselves in a complicated web of corridors, some of which seemed to cross over one another without actually occupying the same space. The walls and ceiling were faded gold, decorated with complicated patterns in red and black. They passed many different turnings but few doors.

"If this is a Time Lord prison, does that mean the Collector is a Time Lord?" said Amy.

"Possibly," said Ten, "If he is, I've never heard of him."

Amy was very pleased with the way things had worked out back at the TARDIS; now she got to spend some time alone with the handsome Ten. She wondered if Rory would mind if she tried for a quick snog? He probably would. Still, a girl could dream.

Ten suddenly threw out an arm to stop her.

"Wait!" he said. He licked a finger, held it out in front of him and then put it in his mouth.

"Displacement field straight ahead," he said, drawing his sonic screwdriver, "If we'd run into that we could have been teleported anywhere."

"So what do we do?"

"There should be a secret control panel nearby," said Ten, scanning the walls with the screwdriver, "In case one of the guards got trapped here during a lockdown. Aha!"

A section of the wall detached itself and slid aside to reveal a small computer display, covered in glowing yellow symbols that Amy could not read.

"It's supposed to be under a genetic lock, to prevent prisoners using it," Ten explained, making passes at the display with his screwdriver, "But I should be able to override it."

The screwdriver whirred. Lines of yellow symbols streamed across the display like computer code. A new group of symbols, this time in red, appeared.

"_Molto bene_!" said Ten, producing his cardboard three dimensional glasses. He crouched down and began to enter commands into the console.

"I don't think our Collector's a Time Lord," he said, "Someone's overlaid a new operating system onto the prison's software. It's definitely not Time Lord; probably something of his own design."

"So how did he get it to work, if he's not one your people?" said Amy.

"Because he's good," said Ten, "Very good. A genius, probably, and I don't use that word very often. But he doesn't understand _how _it works. And that's the key difference between me and him - I do.

"It's like if you give Leonardo da Vinci a motorcar. He can work out _how_ to drive it but not _why_ it works. Ah," he sighed, "that was a fun evening. One of the perils of getting drunk with a time machine. Did you know that you can get a Mini Cooper through the TARDIS door?"

There was a slight shimmer in the air further along the corridor.

"That's the shields down," said Ten, "Only this area though; I can't access the rest of the prison from here. We'll have to leave that to the grumpy one. Let's see if I can find a map…"

A complicated three dimensional picture appeared on the display. It reminded Amy of a plate of spaghetti and meatballs; a number of orbs connected by a tangled nest of thin strands.

"It says that the Temporal Anchor is a few hundred metres along this corridor," said Ten, "And… Oh!"

"What is it?" said Amy.

"Daleks! They've boarded the station!" Ten stood up, "We have to move now, before –"

"LIFE FORMS DETECTED!"

"A TIME LORD AND A HUMAN FEMALE!"

"THEY MUST BE EXTERMINATED!"

Three red Dalek drones glided round the corner.

"Run!" cried Ten. He and Amy sprinted away as the Daleks' energy beams destroyed the computer display in a shower of sparks.

"This new lot are smart!" panted Ten as he and Amy turned another corner.

"ADVANCE!" shrieked the Daleks, "ELIMINATE THE ENEMY! DESTROY THE ENEMY! _EXTERMINATE THE ENEMY!"_

Ten and Amy hurtled through the golden corridors, the Daleks close behind. Energy beams flashed past. Amy's head whirled as turnings zipped by; she was completely lost. Another corner and they came to a small, domed area. It was a dead end.

Ten span round on the spot, pointing his sonic screwdriver at the walls and ceiling.

"I'm reading massive amounts of power being diverted into this area," he said, "We're literally feet away from the Temporal Anchor!"

"So where is it?" cried Amy.

"I don't know!"

The Daleks appeared at the end of the corridor.

"TARGET IDENTIFIED! IT IS THE DOCTOR!"

"EXTERMINATE THE DOCTOR! EXTERMINATE, _EXTERMINATE!"_

* * *

After about half an hour wandering around identical corridors, Rose and Eleven found their way to the foot of an immensely high spiral staircase. It stood, apparently unsupported, in the centre of a wide round vault. The top was so far away that it could not be seen.

They began to climb, Rose slowly and staying as close to the central pillar as possible, Eleven skipping blithely along the far edge.

"H-how long have you been travelling with Amy and R-roy?" Rose asked, trying to keep her mind off the ever increasing drop beneath her feet. It did not help that each step was a golden lattice that she could see straight through. There was really nowhere to look butdown.

"A while," said Eleven, evasively.

"Right," said Rose. She returned to concentrating on the climb. Her palms were slick with sweat but her feet felt like they were bathed in ice and she did not want to think too hard about her stomach in case it decided to empty itself.

As they ascended, Rose kept glancing at Eleven. He looked uncomfortable but not with the height; he was stepping confidently along the very edge of the void. He was trying not to look at her, staring at anything but her.

"Sorry," said Rose, halting, "Have I done something wrong?"

"What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?" said Eleven, a little too quickly.

"Then why're you giving me the cold shoulder?"

"I'm not," said Eleven, still not looking straight at her.

"What d'you call this then?"

"It's just… strange, being around you."

"Well how do you think I feel? Six months ago I didn't know about aliens or time machines or anythin' like this. I didn't know about you. And now there's three of you!"

The Doctor smiled apologetically.

"Shall we carry on?" he said.

They continued climbing, higher and higher until the ground below was a circle the size of a five pence piece. Looking up, Rose could see that they were at last approaching the ceiling. The staircase ended beneath a large, circular trapdoor of beaten gold. Eleven made a pass at it with his sonic screwdriver.

"Under a deadlock seal," he said, "And heavily shielded too. No idea what's on the other side."

"Do we have to go back?" said Rose, feeling queasy just at the thought of descending all those stairs again. Eleven shook his head.

"Only one reason this door would be so heavily protected – this is the command level. The TARDIS is just above us."

"But you can't open it."

"No. We'll just have to wait for _your_ Doctor to do it, wherever he's got to. Shouldn't take too long, provided he hasn't decided to blow the place up instead…"

They sat down on the top step. For a long time, neither of them spoke. Eleven produced a wooden yo-yo from his jacket and attempted to do some tricks. He was not very good at them. Minutes crawled by.

"What's so strange about being 'round me?" Rose said suddenly. The question sounded more aggressive than she had intended.

"No reason," said Eleven, concentrating on his yo-yo. Rose grabbed the spool and pulled it away from him.

"What's wrong?" she snapped, "Did – Did something happen? _Does _something happen, between you and me?"

"No! Well yes but – It's complicated... But that's not it."

"Then what is it?"

Eleven sighed. His chin sank down to his chest. When he spoke again, his voice was soft. He sounded very old and very tired:

"When I met you, I was a mess. The end of the Time War; all the things I'd done and seen and could never unsee… My whole life was unravelling. I didn't know who I was anymore or what I should be doing. Then I met you. You helped me see it again."

"See what?"

"Everything. The wonder, the terror, the mystery… of everything. You reminded me who I was. I'm nine hundred and seven years old. I've travelled with a lot of people. And they were all special to me. But you were something else to him. To both of them."

"But not to you?"

"I…remember how they felt – feel. But I don't – I _can't _feel the same about you. I am the same man but I am a different person."

"I don't understand."

"It's like… meeting someone you met once but you can't remember their name. It's on the tip of your tongue. You know what they look like and maybe a bit about them but the name is just out of reach. That's what it's like. I can remember being with you but you are still a stranger to me."

Rose did not know what to say. He looked so forlorn, with his deep sad eyes and ridiculous bowtie. She reached out tentatively to put a hand on his shoulder, when she heard a sudden grinding noise above her head.

"Good man," said Eleven, leaping to his feet, "He's got the door open."

Slowly, the trapdoor rolled aside. A short set of steps unfolded, allowing them to climb the last few feet.

"Look at all this cool stuff!" cried Eleven, skipping into the room above, his melancholy apparently forgotten. Rose followed. It was a large hallway, with a clear vaulted ceiling that looked out onto deep space. The room was filled with an eclectic mix of objects: clothes, weapons, paintings, vases, computers, sculptures and more. More exhibits stood on a gallery above them that ran around three side of the room. At the far end of the room, on a low dais, stood the TARDIS.

"Oh you sexy thing…" murmured Eleven, heading straight for it.

With a flash of blue light the Collector appeared in the middle of the room, between Eleven and the TARDIS.

"Hands off my collection!" he snarled, pointing his displacement ray at Eleven.

"The TARDIS is mine," said Eleven, reaching inside jacket.

"Keep your hands where I can see them," said the Collector, "I don't want you using that sonic probe –"

"Screwdriver," Eleven corrected him.

"A sonic screwdriver? I shall have add it to my collection. It will make an interesting toy."

"Is that what we are too – toys collected for your amusement? What about the Daleks, hmm? Are your toys not playing anymore?"

"Clever of you to find my Vault like this," said the Collector, with a sneering smile, "You're still mine, though – you, your friends, your time capsule – all of you! I will deal with the Daleks but first I'm going to kill you, Doctor. You're too much trouble to keep."

"I'm glad to hear it."

The Collector's displacement ray collapsed in his hand. It tumbled to the floor in pieces. Eleven and the Collector both looked up. Nine and Rory were standing on the gallery on the far side of the room.

"Screwdriver!" said Nine cheerfully, waving his at the Collector.

The Collector gave a short, bitter laugh.

"How clever," he said.

Eleven attempted to step past him. The Collector leapt to one side and seized a sword hanging on the wall.

"This is simpler but it's effective!" he said, slashing at Eleven.

"Doctor!" cried Rose as Eleven ducked the first cut, seized another sword from the wall and blocked the second.

"Don't worry," said Eleven breezily, "Errol Flynn taught me how to do this!"

He laid enthusiastically into the Collector, stamping and shouting as they glided back and forth along the hall. As they fought, Nine and Rory vaulted over the edge of the gallery and landed beside Rose.

"Are you alright?" Nine said.

"I'm fine," said Rose, "Go help him."

"He's doing alright," said Nine.

"Yeah but he's just… slapping the swords together," Rose pointed out.

As if on cue, the Collector struck the guard of Eleven's sword and knocked it spinning out of his hand. Eleven tried to step back, tripped and landed heavily on his side. The Collector raised his sword to strike but then Rory was between them, Eleven's sword in his hand.

"What're you doing?" shouted Nine.

"Don't worry," said Rory, "I used to be a Roman centurion."

The Collector lunged at him. Rory parried, took the Collector's sword in a bind then stepped close. Pushing the Collector's point aside, he punched out hard with the pommel of his own sword. The Collector was sent sprawling to the floor, dropping his blade as he fell. He was back on his feet in a second, sprinting down the room. Rory dropped his sword and pursued, the others close behind. The Collector reached the far end of the room and disappeared inside the TARDIS. The time travellers followed.

* * *

"EXTERMINATE!" screamed the Daleks as they advanced.

"What's that?" said Amy, pointing to a thin circle carved into the floor beneath her feet. Ten pointed his screwdriver at it.

"An access hatch? Oh but that's _brilliant!" _he said. The screwdriver whirred. Amy leapt back as the circle slid aside to reveal a narrow hole. Light shone up from the hole and danced on the curved ceiling above them.

"Jump!" said Ten. A Dalek energy beam shot between them, leaving a smoking black hole in the wall behind. Amy hesitated for a second and then dropped feet first into the hole.

The whole world span around her; there was no up or down, backwards or forwards. She was lost in a disorientating limbo. Then there was a bright white light and she was flying up into the air. Her feet landed on something solid. She staggered forward and fell on her hands and knees. She turned around just in time to see Ten come shooting up out of a hole in the floor behind her.

"I'm sorry," he said, running forward to help her to feet, "I'm so sorry. I didn't have time to warn you about the gravity flip…"

"Gravity flip?" Amy said woozily.

"We're standing on the underside of the room above," Ten explained, "It's a trick built into the prison to hide the Anchor. Anybody looking for it would expect it to be behind a giant door or something. They wouldn't think to look in a little hole in the floor."

"What about the Daleks?"

"Don't worry about them. They can't get through the hole."

Amy looked around. They were standing in a domed room, identical to the one they had just left. A short ramp led up into a much larger room. It was shaped like the inside of a sphere, with galleries built into the inner wall. These galleries contained many strange machines made of gold and crystal and computer displays covered in rows of yellow symbols. In the centre of the sphere was a billowing, nebulous ball of something a little like a cloud and a little like a fire. Sometimes it shone with a powerful white light and sometimes it was dim and grey as a raincloud. Amy could feel no heat coming from it but she suspected that she was being shielded from it somehow. It seemed to be making rumbling, thunderous noise but slightly deadened, as if heard through thick glass.

"That's pure temporal energy," Ten explained, "Unrefined, not like the stuff that powers the TARDIS, but it's amazingly strong."

"What are you going to do? Blow it up?" said Amy.

"No, too dangerous. Temporal energy's unpredictable stuff: no way of knowing if we would make it back to the TARDIS in time. No, safest thing to do is just reverse all previous commands. That way, everything gets put back where it came from."

Ten set to work reprogramming the Temporal Anchor. Amy helped as best she could: entering a command here or turning a crystal as he directed. Ten worked mainly at a large computer display on the topmost gallery, overlooking the cloud of temporal energy.

"There," he said at last, putting his screwdriver down on the display in front of him, "All we have to do is enter the last command and the Collector's collection is gone."

"Alright! Let's do it," said Amy, moving to stand beside him. But Ten did not move.

"But what if I didn't?" he murmured.

"Ten? Are you alright?" said Amy.

"I was just… wondering. What else could you do with this technology?"

"I don't understand."

"Think about it – this is the only working Time Scoop in existence. All it needs is a few enhancements. I could do so much with it…"

"What are you saying?" said Amy. Ten's expression, intense bordering on mania, was scaring her.

"I could take all the evil out of the universe," he said softly, "The Daleks; the Cybermen; the Weeping Angels; all of them. I could take all that death and suffering and lock it away, in here, forever."

"But… but you can't do that."

"Who says I can't?" he demanded.

"You can't make that decision. You don't have the right!"

"Oh yes I do. I'm the Doctor! And if you're looking for a higher authority, there isn't one. I'm the last of the Time Lords. I am all that stands between the light and the darkness. And now I've got a chance to take that darkness out of the universe. All the evil and terrible people that have ever been or will be, gone forever!"

Amy shrank back a little from Ten. Right then, nothing in the world seemed as terrible as him. He seemed to tower over everything, a frenzied righteousness blazing from his face.

Amy lunged forward, grabbed the sonic screwdriver, pointed it at the computer display in front of her and began pressing buttons at random. A fountain of rainbow coloured sparks exploded from the display.

"What are you doing?" cried Ten, snatching the screwdriver out of her hand.

"Saving you!" said Amy. The whole room shuddered. The mass of temporal energy was starting to pulsate violently. Several of the crystal machines exploded.

"I'm sorry," Ten gasped, staring into the fiery cloud, "I am sosorry."

"Never mind that, _run!" _yelled Amy as a tendril of the temporal energy lashed out, burning away a whole section of one of the lower galleries.

"This way," said Ten, pointing towards a doorway on the far side of the room.

"Where does that go?"

"No idea! But we can't go back the way we came; the Daleks will be waiting for us."

Ten unlocked the door ahead with his sonic screwdriver without even breaking his stride. He and Amy burst into the corridor beyond just as another finger of temporal energy swept the gallery behind them, disintegrating a row of crystal machines.

"How long before the whole prison goes up?" said Amy, as the corridor gave a violent lurch beneath them.

"I don't know!" said Ten, "We have to get to the TARDIS as fast as we can or we're dead!"

* * *

The time travellers sprang into Eleven's TARDIS. Rose was surprised to see how different the console room looked: orange and yellow, with lots of beaten metal, as opposed to the familiar organic browns and blue. The Collector was standing by the console, a thick black cable in his hand. He was adjusting a nozzle-like attachment at one end.

"Put that down," shouted Eleven, running towards him, "You don't know what you're doing!"

"Stay where you are!" ordered the Collector, pointing the nozzle at him. Eleven froze, halfway up the steps to the console.

"That's a highly concentrated stream of neutron energy," said Eleven, slowly, "If you fire it in here, it could tear the TARDIS apart."

"Oh don't worry, Doctor; I've had some experience with your technology before," said the Collector, "I am not going to destroy this time capsule after you brought it to me."

"Brought it to you?" said Nine, moving up onto the steps beside Eleven, "We didn't bring it. You stole it!"

"It doesn't matter," said the Collector, with a shrug, "It's mine now. I won't destroy it. I might even use it – leave this prison and start my collection again somewhere. But first, I will destroy _you!"_

He twisted a handle on the side of the nozzle. A beam of searing golden light shot from the end.

"Rose, get out!" Nine yelled, as he and Eleven leapt towards the door. But the beam of light never reached them. It struck an invisible barrier, six feet in front of the Collector. With the unmistakable _vwoosh vwoosh _sound, the TARDIS materialised beside the console. The door swung inwards.

"Hello all!" said Ten brightly, leaning out, "We thought this quicker than…" The four other time travellers rushed past him. There was a frantic struggle. Eleven wrenched the neutron cable out of the Collector's hands, while Nine and Rory tried to pin his arms.

"Rose! The toolbox!" shouted Eleven.

"Where?"

"Under the console!"

Rose dropped down, seized the metal box, stood up and hit the Collector in the back of the head as hard as she could. He fell limp, supported between Nine and Rory.

"I was just going to ask for a spanner," said Eleven weakly.


	8. The Raggedy Doctor Man

**Chapter 8: The Raggedy Doctor Man**

"It's bigger on the inside… but also smaller?"

"And also bigger then smaller again," said Nine, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

They were standing in the console room of Ten's TARDIS, with Eleven's TARDIS parked beside them. Inside Eleven's TARDIS, was Nine's. If she titled her head at the right angle, Amy could see through the door of Eleven's TARDIS into the console room and then inside Nine's TARDIS to a third, completely different console room.

"Imagine a set of Russian dolls," said Eleven, "Except they're all exactly the same size…. Actually, they're nothing like Russian dolls. Forget the dolls."

"Looks like everything is back where it's supposed to be," said Ten, who was busy at the console, "When the Temporal Anchor exploded, all the worlds in the Collection jumped back to their original time and place."

"What about the Daleks?" said Rory.

Ten shrugged.

"Some will have died in the explosion," he said, "The ones on the prison certainly. The fleet probably survived though; they usually do."

"And what about him?" said Rose, looking down at the Collector, who had been handcuffed to one of the pillars. He was still unconscious, with an ugly purple bruise on his forehead. She looked faintly embarrassed at drawing attention to him.

"I'll drop him off with the Shadow Proclamation," said Ten, "They don't take kindly to people rearranging the cosmos."

"Which is why I try to keep out of their way," said Nine, grinning.

"So is that it?" said Rose, "You're leavin'?"

"I've stayed too long already. The longer we're together, the more strain it puts on the timeline," said Ten sadly.

"Look at this way," said Amy, putting an arm around Rose, "You'll be seeing him again. Or would that be for the first time?"

"There's one thing I still don't understand," said Rory, "How did our TARDIS end up on Castor IV?"

"The Collector must have brought it there," said Rose.

"No," Eleven shook his head, "Rory's right: he said that we had _brought it _to him… Oh!"

"Oh!" echoed Ten and Nine.

"What?" said the three companions but the Doctors did not reply.

"Do you think you can do it?" Nine asked Ten.

"Perhaps you'd better let me try," suggested Eleven.

"No, I've got it!" said Ten sharply, moving around the console, "It's just going to be a bit of a squeeze, that's all."

The TARDIS wheezed and juddered. Once it was still, Eleven crossed over to the front door and stepped out into his own console room. Amy could now see into the same console room through two opposite doors.

"What's going on?" said Rose.

"It's alright!" Eleven shouted, "I'm just moving us to Castor IV!"

"So that," Rory pointed through the door into Eleven's TARDIS, "is our TARDIS," he pointed to Eleven, "from the present. But that," he pointed to the console room visible through the front door of Ten's TARDIS, "is our TARDIS from the past."

"Yep. Simple isn't it?" said Nine, smiling.

"We're in a stable time loop," said Ten, "He just travelled back in time to move his own TARDIS to Castor IV so that he would summon us, his past selves, to help him retrieve it so he could go back in time and move it."

"I think I need to sit down," said Amy weakly.

"All done," said Eleven, walking back into Ten's console room and closing the door behind him, "The Collector should be along in a few hours to steal it."

"I think it's time we were off," Nine said, with a meaningful look at Rose. She embraced Amy and Rory.

"Take care of him okay?" Amy said, with a watery smile, "We want him in one piece when it's our turn."

"Promise," said Rose.

"Wait! Wait just one moment!" cried Eleven, diving past Nine and into his present TARDIS. He returned a few minutes later carrying a pot of tea and some cups on a tray.

"You can't go without having a drink," he said brightly, "Shall I be mother?"

The other exchanged bemused looks but this was almost normal by Eleven's standards, so they all stood around the console holding cups and saucers while he offered them a jammy dodger. When the tea was cool enough to drink, Rose raised her cup to give a toast:

"Y'know, I thought I was lucky to have met the Doctor. Now I've met three of you! And I'm so glad. Top blokes, all of you."

They all took a sip of their tea. A moment later, Rose's cup slipped from her fingers and shattered on the floor.

"Rose!" cried Amy. She was beginning to swoon. Amy and Rory took her arms and lowered her gently to the floor. Amy looked up at the Doctors. None of them looked surprised. Their faces were hard, like men performing an unpleasant but necessary duty.

"What did you do to her?" demanded Rory.

"Retcon," said Eleven.

"What?"

"It's a drug I picked up from some friends back on Earth," explained Ten, "It wipes the memory. The dose she just drank should make her forget the last forty eight hours."

"But why?"

"We couldn't let Rose remember meeting me – it would have disrupted her timeline too much."

"We agreed this was the best solution. Didn't we?" said Eleven, looking at Nine. Nine nodded, his mouth clenched tight shut.

Together, they carefully moved Rose through into Nine's TARDIS and laid her down beside the console.

"She'll be alright. She'll come round in an hour or so," said Eleven, seeing Rory and Amy's expression, "Come on. They're the smallest doll – they have to go first."

They moved back into the console room of Eleven's TARDIS.

"Well… goodbye," Amy said to Ten. She wanted to hug him but she found that she could not bring herself to do it. Every time she looked at him she remembered that fleeting yet terrible moment in the prison. She wondered just how far he would have gone if she had not been there to stop him? In the end the four of them simply shook hands.

"We'll see each other again," said Ten.

"Well, _you _will," said Rory. Ten crossed to the front door, which would lead to his own console room. He paused at the door.

"Amy."

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"You be careful," she replied.

He closed the door behind him. Amy and Rory moved to join Eleven up by the console. Amy suddenly threw her arms around him.

"What was that for?" he gasped.

"For being you," she said, stepping back, "My raggedy Doctor man."

THE END


End file.
